The Vanguard
by djmiddleton4
Summary: Dominic Middleton is a veteran member of the elite superhero team The Avengers. Nick Fury thinks it's time for Dominic to have his own team of heroes. They go out and recruit three individuals with powers. Imani Kelly, Jeffrey Morris, and Darrell Robinson. All of this is happening as a new threat arises who has a close connection to Dominic and prepares to get his revenge on him.
1. Chapter 1

It was a cool cloudy morning at Avengers headquarters. On the roof of the facility, the roof is opening in half as the Quinjet is flying out of it and then jetting off to its location. In the jet were leader Steve Rogers (Captain America), T'Challa (Black Panther), Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Vision, Monica Rambeau (Spectrum), Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk), and Dominic Middleton (Stealth). While in the jet, Captain America was giving the details on the mission the Avengers were about to go on. With Hawkeye piloting the jet, Captain America presses a button and pictures of Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) and Adam Brashear (Blue Marvel) pop up on a screen. "As you all know, Blue Marvel and Quicksilver were sent on an assignment to investigate and retrieve info from the Hydra facility down in Seattle, Washington," Captain America said. "They have reported that there are unexpected underground tunnels running below the facility. This morning they failed to check in." "Both are capable of handling themselves, but we need to go down there to see if everything's alright just in case." Black Panther said. "Especially with Blue Marvel," Spectrum said. "But if they were able to catch him, they must have some pretty high tech." "What do you think these tunnels are for?" Stealth asked. "Who knows?" She-Hulk asked. "Hydra is capable of anything." "She's right on that Cap." Hawkeye said. "And anything they throw at us we can handle." Cap said. "So, what is the plan you have for us?" Vision asked. "There's not much I can give now," Cap said. "But for now, we'll start by investigating the tunnels." "How long will it be before we get there?" Spectrum asked. "2 hours max." Hawkeye said. "Wonder what Hydra has up their sleeve this time." Dominic said.

As they were arriving to the facility, She-Hulk sees the facility which looks like an abandoned warehouse. "This doesn't look like any normal Hydra facility." she says. "They must be using it as a front then." Dominic said. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, going into stealth mode." Hawkeye said. As Hawkeye pressed a button, the Quinjet started to disappear into thin air and it landed about half of a mile from the facility. They walked out of the Quinjet all suited up and started walking to the facility. "Vision, can you give us a location of the tunnels?" Cap asked. Vision closed his eyes and used his computer mind to locate the tunnels. "The tunnels are right beneath us." he said. "Dominic, can you scan for Pietro and Adam?" Spectrum asked. Dominic put his first two fingers of his right hand on his head and started using his telepathy to look for them. He found them but then lost them after a mysterious slight shock came in his head with letting out a slight groan. "Ahh." he said. "What's the matter?" Hawkeye asked. "I found them but only for a quick second before I lost it. Something is attacking me from the inside." Dominic said. "They must have installed some type of telepathic block in the facility." Spectrum said. "Alright here's the plan then," Cap said. "Dominic, you and T'Challa will go inside and rescue Adam and Pietro. The rest of us will investigate these tunnels and see what we can find. As you rescue them two, rendezvous back with us to help us investigate." "Great. We'll be on our way." Black Panther said as him and Stealth walked off. "Now if we can figure out a way to get underground." Hawkeye said. "Allow me." She-Hulk said. She jumped in the air and landed a powerful slam on the ground which transported the remaining members underground.

As Black Panther and Stealth were walking up to the facility, they see two Hydra guards standing at the door guarding it. Dominic looked at T'Challa and asked, "Shall I?" "As you wish." he responded. Dominic turned invisible and walked up to one guard and side kicked him in the face knocking him out. The other guard, who was stunned at what happened, got out his gun and started looking around. The guard felt a touch on his body and heard a voice that said, "Bet you didn't see this coming." Dominic came out of his invisibility scaring the guard and kicked him in the face knocking him out. Dominic gave T'Challa a signal to come to him. As T'Challa arrived, he said, "We'll probably have to go in there undetected. There's no telling what we can walk into." Dominic got a security key out of a guard's pocket and slid it through a key slot. After he did that, he touched T'Challa and made him and himself invisible. They opened the door and they couldn't believe their eyes. They see Hydra agents in the process of making hi-tech weapons. "What could they be making?" Dominic asked whispering to T'Challa. "I don't know," he responded. "From the looks of it, it almost looks like it can be a copy of Stark's tech." "Well, if it's that, then they must be doing something big." "Dom, you go and look for Quicksilver and Blue Marvel, I'll check around this place and see what I can find." "Gotcha." "And Dom. Be careful." "Don't worry. I'll be fine." Dominic ran off and went to find his missing teammates.

In the tunnels, the remaining members of the Avengers were battling off Hydra agents. "What could they be doing under these tunnels?" Clint asked as he was shooting his arrows at the agents. "I will look around some more and see what I can find." Vision said. A Hydra agent was shooting at Vision and he used his density power as the bullets went through his body. Vision shifted back to his normal state and flew to the agent and he changed the density of his right arm and punched the Hydra agent which sent him flying back through a wall. Vision flew through the hole that the Hydra agent made to see what he can find. Spectrum blasted her energy blasts from her hands and knocked back a few agents. "Did anyone one of you guys find anything?" She-Hulk asked as she grabbed a Hydra agent and head-butted him knocking him out. "I don't know but let's make this quick." Cap said. He threw his shield which boomeranged from agent to agent knocking them out as they were hit by it. The shield came back to Cap and he put it behind his back. Now that all the Hydra agents were defeated, Vision came back to the team and said, "I believe I have found something. Follow me." The team followed him and as they walked through the hole, they seemed to walk into what appears to be a ship. "A ship?" Hawkeye asked. "What could they be doing with a ship?" "I don't know." Cap responded. Cap activated his communicator on his ear and contacted Stealth and Black Panther. "Captain America to Stealth and Black Panther," he said. "We found a ship down here in the tunnels, but we don't know exactly why they have it. Could you find any information on it if you guys can?" "Will do." they both said.

Back at the Hydra facility, Dominic was still looking around for his two teammates still invisible. He stood in a corner and saw two bodies in what it looks like a containment cell. "Has to be them." Dominic said. Suddenly, his cell phone started ringing. Scared and shocked, he got out his phone and saw that it was his uncle that was calling. "Goddamn it I thought I left this in the jet." he said. "Hello." "Dominic, it's your uncle." he said. "I'm in the middle of a mission right now, you could've called me at a better time." he responded angrily. "You told me to call you whenever I was ready to present to you of what I came up with for you." "Well Uncle Nick, you called at the wrong time." "Listen, just come to the Helicarrier when you get done with your mission." "Fine. I'll see you then." "Goodbye Dominic." As Dominic hung up the phone, he saw that a bunch of Hydra agents have all circled around him. He came out of his invisibility and said, "Well, this is embarrassing." He laughed as they were all coming in closer on him. He stopped laughing and said, "So can y'all tell me what are y'all doing with these weapons? Or what y'all are doing with a ship underground?" The agents came closer to him again with no room for Stealth to leave. "So, where gonna have to do this the hard way huh?" he asked. He spread his arms out in a quick motion and let out a quick force field burst that left the agents falling back. Stealth put a force field around some of the agents and telekinetically threw them out of a window. He turned around and saw an agent pull out his gun and started shooting at him. Stealth put up a force field just in time to deflect all the bullets that were shooting at him. As he stopped firing the gun, he pushed the force field towards that agent and knocked him back. A few agents were running towards Stealth but as Dominic was about to attack, Black Panther came in at the last second and gave out a flying kick to all of them which knocked them out. Stealth looking unimpressed said, "You knew I had that." "I know," Black Panther said. "But a king needs his shine right?" Stealth gave a slight chuckle and they both walked up to the containment cells to rescue their two teammates. As they both looked at their defeated and unconscious teammates, Stealth noticed something was off. "Something's wrong." Stealth said. "What is it?" Black Panther asked. Stealth touched his hand on the containment cells and was revealed something shocking using his telepathy. "It's not them." he said. "What?!" T'Challa yelled. "It's not. They're decoys. I'm checking for brain signals and I can't read anything." "Cap to Black Panther and Stealth," Cap said to them over their communicators. "You need to get out of their right now! That base is used as a front and will detonate in one minute! Get out of there now!" Stealth and Black Panther looked at each other. Stealth made a force field and pushed it against a wall to make an opening for them. They jumped out of the hole and KABOOM! Stealth and Black Panther landed safely on the ground thanks to his force field and ran until they made it to a safe place away from the explosion. "You good?" Stealth asked. "Always," Black Panther responded. "Let's catch back up with the others."

They caught back up with the others on the ship and Spectrum asked, "Were you guys able to find anything?" "No," T'Challa responded. "Plus, Blue Marvel and Quicksilver were not on that ship. They were decoys." "Then they have to be on here or somewhere held captive." Cap said. "Right you are Captain America." a mysterious voice said. As that voice said that, the Avengers got in their fighting stances all ready for an attack that was about to come to them. Then they see a man in a purple mask come out of the shadows as he was walking on a platform above them. "Avengers," he said. "Always a sight for sore eyes." "Well we wouldn't know with that mask over your face." Stealth said. "Baron Zemo," Cap said. "What kind of operation are you running down here?" "Something that will take the world by storm." he responded. "And you guys will be the first to witness." Zemo got out a remote out of his pocket and pressed a button on there. Then suddenly, the ship started shaking with the Avengers falling to the ground. "What's going on?" Spectrum asked. The ship started to rise off the ground and Zemo got a gun and blasted it towards the ceiling which made the entire thing disintegrate. As that happened, roaring waters came crashing down on the Avengers. As they can see they were about drown, Stealth put a force field around the team protecting them, so they won't drown. As the ship rose above water, Stealth put his force field down and saw that the ship was no ordinary ship. "This ship is full of cannons!" he yelled. "Right you are Stealth." Zemo said. "Where are we?" Hawkeye said. "On the coast of Seattle." Vision said. "And before you start attacking me, you might want to rescue your friends." Zemo said. Zemo pointed in the air and the Avengers looked up and saw a jet flying in the air. "That's gotta be them." She-Hulk said. "Flyers, you go after them," Cap said. "Everybody else, we'll take care of him." Vision, Spectrum, and Stealth flew off to rescue to their teammates. Suddenly, Hydra agents started to come out from different parts of the ship. They all gathered around Baron Zemo and Zemo yelled, "Hail Hydra!" "HAIL HYDRA!" the agents responded. "This is going to be fun." Hawkeye said. He fired the first shot with his arrows and electrocuted about a fourth of the Hydra army. "Attack!" Zemo yelled. The agents started running towards the Avengers and as always, the Avengers were ready. She-Hulk ground slammed the ground and made the all the agents who were running fall to the ground. Black Panther started pouncing on enemies clawing them while throwing vibranium daggers at other enemies. Captain America had all eyes on Baron Zemo and he threw his shield at Baron Zemo. Zemo dodged the shield and it came back to Cap. Cap started running towards Zemo and they both started fighting hand to hand. In the air, the remaining Avengers were en route to rescue their teammates. With the jet they were after, the jet started firing heat seeking missiles. "INCOMING!" Spectrum yelled. All three dodged the missiles, but the missiles were coming back towards them. "Heat- seeking." Stealth said. Vision fired at the missiles using his solar beam on his forehead which destroyed all of them. "I have an idea," Stealth said. "Grab on to me." Vision and Spectrum did as he said and they all turned invisible. "We have to go in there undecteded." Stealth said. They all flew to the jet and landed on top of it. "I will go inside." Vision said. He used his density shifting power and phased through the jet to get inside. Stealth turned his invisibility off and he attacked the pilot. Defeating him with such ease, he took control of the jet and let Stealth and Spectrum inside. They were able to find their two teammates in what appears to be a containment cell filled with a gas which made them unconscious. Stealth created a force field and changed it to a shape of an ax and broke the glass containing the two. As he did that, the gas was released from their cell and they both woke up from their unconscious state. "Monica. Dominic." Blue Marvel said. "We're glad to see y'all too." Spectrum said. Stealth helped Quicksilver out and asked, "You good?" "Yeah, I'm alright." he said. They all went to the front of the jet and saw Vision piloting the jet. "Vision it's good to see you." Quicksilver said. "Great to see you and Adam are well," Vision said. "We must travel back to the others and help them." Vision turned the jet around and quickly flew to the others. They arrived in a nick of time seeing the others still fighting off Hydra. "Are you guys okay to fight?" Spectrum." "Yes." Blue Marvel responded. "Always." Quicksilver said. All of them flew out the jet (with Quicksilver holding on to Vision) and aided the rest of their team on fighting off Hydra. As they were fighting off Hydra, they saw the cannons on the ship starting to fire up. "What's up with the cannons?" Hawkeye said. Zemo ran to the one of the cannons and he said, "As you can see that we are on the coast of Seattle, these cannons will fire at all different places of the city." "Oh no." Quicksilver said. "The power of these cannons could level an entire block thanks to Stark tech that we've obtained." Zemo said. "Tony has to get better security on his tech." Hawkeye said. The first cannon fired in the air. Before it could reach the city, Stealth telekinetically stopped it, but the blast was too much for him to contain as he released the blast in the air. "I can try to stop this but it's gonna have to take a lot of energy from me." Stealth said. As Blue Marvel was attacking Hydra agents, he yelled out, "T'Challa! We have to find a way to stop these cannons from firing." "On my way." T'Challa said. He finished off the last of the Hydra agents he was with and ran to Blue Marvel's side and they both ran off to find a way to shut down the cannons. The cannons continued to fire and Stealth continued to fight it off but each time he felt himself getting weaker while all at the same time defending himself from Hydra agents. "Quicksilver," Cap yelled. "Stealth needs help. Get to his side." "On it Captain!" Quicksilver ran to his aid in less than a second and started taking care of the agents that were coming for Stealth. "Preciate that!" Stealth said. The remaining members were seen fighting Baron Zemo to try and stop his doing once and for all. Zemo got out his sword and attacked each Avenger member coming for him. The Avengers were all attacking him at separate times which didn't work. As Stealth was still defending the city from the cannons, he could feel himself getting weaker and weaker. "Guys, I don't think I can hold this much longer!" he yelled. "Just a few more seconds Stealth." Blue Marvel said over his communicator. Both him and T'Challa were in a control room where they were finding a way to disable the cannons. A few seconds later, the cannons started to cease fire and Stealth fell to the ground on his knees with blood coming out of his nose. "It's done." Black Panther said. Quicksilver ran to Stealth's aid and asked, "Are you alright?" "Yeah, I just need to sit for a few," Stealth said. "WHOO!" The Avengers then were seen on the verge of defeating Zemo. Captain America gave his shield one last throw and it hit Zemo in the head knocking him out. "It's over Zemo." Cap said as he was walking to his unconscious body. Blue Marvel, Black Panther, Quicksilver, and Stealth ran to the rest of team's side to see the defeated Baron Zemo. "Glad to see you two back." Hawkeye said to Blue Marvel and Quicksilver. "Glad to be back." Quicksilver said.


	2. Chapter 2

The Avengers were on their way back to their headquarters as they finished with their mission. While on the way back, Stealth was seen coming out of the back changed out of his uniform wearing casual clothes. "Clint," he said. "I need you to drop me off at the Helicarrier." "Why you need to go there?" Spectrum asked. "Uncle Nick said he needed me for something. I don't know what but it's something." "Could be that thing you told us about." Hawkeye said. "Are you gonna do it?" Cap asked. "I don't know," Stealth said. "I still haven't decided yet. I'm not capable enough to handle something that big. Don't know why he chose me to when there's more qualified people like y'all to do this." "He probably sees something special in you," Black Panther said. "We all do." "I guess." Dominic said. He threw his uniform in the back and took a seat on the jet to await his destination. She-Hulk was getting a cup of water to aid Quicksilver and Blue Marvel. "Thought you guys might need this." she said. "Thank you, Jennifer." Blue Marvel said. Sometime later, they arrived at the Helicarrier. Hawkeye was about to land the plane on the runway, but Stealth stopped him and said, "It's okay. I'll fly from here." He pressed a button on the control panel and a door opened in the back. "I'll see you guys back at home." "See ya Dominic." all the Avengers said. Stealth jumped out of the plane and put a force field in the shape of a bubble around himself and started flying. He landed on the runway and S.H.I.E.L.D agents started to greet him. "Mr. Middleton welcome aboard." one agent said. "Thank you." Stealth said. "Director Fury is expecting you," another agent said. "I'll take you to him." They walked from the runway of the Helicarrier to the bridge of the ship as they looked for Director Fury. As they walked inside the bridge, there were dozens of agents walking around and sitting at computer screens doing their work. An agent sees Nick Fury at his command center and touches Stealth on the shoulder. "Director Fury is right over there." the agent said. "Thank you." Stealth walked over to his uncle and asked, "You needed to see me?" His uncle turned around and saw Stealth and instantly put a smile on his face. "Dominic," he said. "Great to see you." Dominic and Nick Fury gave each other a hug and Dominic said, "That's the first time I've seen you smile in a while." "Well I try to not smile in front of people." Fury said. They both laughed. "Follow me." Fury said.

They both walked away from the bridge and headed to Fury's private quarters which was his own office. His office had this huge computer screen in there that Stealth was in awe of. "I've never been here before." Stealth said. "Only a few have." Fury said. Stealth continued walking around in his office and Fury said, "Come sit right here Dominic." He did as he said and Fury was typing up information on his computer. "Dominic?" he asked while he was typing. "Do you remember the last time you were up here and we talked about forming your own team?" "Yeah." Stealth responded. "Well, I possibly found your team." "My team," Stealth asked. "I didn't agree to this." He finished typing and pictures of three individuals came up on the computer screen. "These were the best people I can find." Fury said. Stealth looked at the three individuals' pictures for a few seconds and tapped on the picture of a woman and a video popped up of her in a laboratory. He pressed play and the woman in the video was doing some type of experiment. The video was mute, so Fury and Stealth couldn't understand anything that she was saying. "Are those diamonds?" Stealth asked. "Just watch." Fury said. In the video, she was doing an experiment with diamonds. Stealth sat there shocked at what was going on in the video. "I hope she's not doing what I think she's doing." he said. She was experimenting splicing the human gene with the crystalline structure of diamonds. She then fired up her machine but then her machine started malfunctioning. She went to the machine to see what was wrong and tried to stop the machine, but it kept getting worse and worse. After that, the machine exploded. The blast sent her flying through the air and crashed against the wall knocking her out. With that blast also shattered the diamonds which were all over the woman's body. Then the diamonds started phasing through her skin and transforming her skin into a diamond like structure. "Oh my God." Stealth said in shock. The video ended and Fury pressed another one of the individuals' pictures. This time, it was man who was in the Air Force and was seen piloting an Air Force aircraft. The video this time had audio. "An Air Force man huh?" Stealth asked. In the video, the man was seen looking over controls. "Captain Morris," a voice over the communicator said. "Yes, Commander." the man responded. "We need you back here at base immediately. Over." "Yes sir." The aircraft made a complete 180 turn and the man was flying back to his base. Then there was an alert that appeared on his screen. "What is that?" Captain Morris asked. He pressed a button to see what was going on but something small had hit the aircraft. He looked around to see what was going. As he put the plane on autopilot, he got up out of his chair to look out his window. He couldn't believe his eyes. A meteor shower was happening right in front of his eyes. More small meteors started hitting his ship. "I got to get out of here." he said. He took control of the aircraft and was dodging each meteor he sees. Then he saw a large fiery meteor that was coming towards his aircraft. He increased the speed of the aircraft to fly away from it, but the meteor still was coming for the aircraft. The meteor kept getting closer and closer and CRASH! The meteor hit the aircraft. He lost control of the aircraft and did his best to gain control, but nothing was working. As the aircraft was descending from the air, he let go of the controls and was flying around inside the aircraft with no control. He is then thrown on the meteor. He tries to get away from but appears to be stuck. The aircraft is still descending from the air and then CRASH! The aircraft makes a crash landing in the middle of a field and BOOM! An explosion happens immediately after. He's still stuck on the fiery comet then closes his eyes as he appears to meet his death. But then the comet starts breaking apart into tiny pieces and the fragments of the comet then started to attach to his body and the fragments phased into his body. As they phased in his body, parts of his body started to combust in flames with no harm to his body. The video then switches to another video in what appears to be a national news report of the crash. As the news reporter was giving the details, the man seems to be in good condition as he was taken away on a stretcher with minor injuries on his body. The video ended and Stealth touched the last picture on the screen and another video started. The video shows a man at a crime scene in what appears to be in Harlem. "I recognize that place." Stealth said. "Yeah, it's Harlem." Fury said. At the crime scene, he appears to be a criminal investigator. He walks around searching for clues when he sees a man sneaking around a corner. The investigator has a confused look on his face until he realizes that the man was the main suspect for the crime that was committed. "HEY!" the investigator said. As soon as he said that, the suspect started to make a run for it. The investigator starts running after him. His colleagues saw the investigator running after the suspect and they start running after the suspect as well. The suspect and investigator were running for a couple minutes throughout the neighborhood dodging traffic and pushing people out of the way. The suspect ran to an alley way and stopped in his tracks because of a dead end. The investigator found the suspect and held out his hand and yelled, "Stop!" As he held out his hand, the suspect was then picked up off the ground and hurled to a brick wall head first as the investigator heard the suspect's skull crack. As he hit the brick wall, he fell to the ground and his head immediately started bleeding. The investigator stood their shocked and surprised at what happened. "What have I done?" he asked himself with a shocked look on his face. A couple of tears started falling from his eyes until his colleagues came. He brushed off his tears quickly and the colleagues stopped in their tracks as they saw the body bleed out to death. "What happened?" a colleague asked. "He just started hitting his head on a brick wall numerous times and then he fell to the ground." the investigator said nervously. A couple colleagues ran to the suspect's body to check and see if he's dead. "There's no pulse." a colleague said. "Oh my God." the investigator said. "Are you okay sir?" another colleague said. "Yes." he responded. After he said that, he continued looking at the dead body stunned and shocked at what he did with a few tears falling down his face.

The video ended leaving Stealth's mouth wide open in response to the last video he watched. "Oh my God." he said. Fury pulled up the three pictures of the individuals and he started naming them one by one. "The first individual we watched was a woman named Imani Kelly," he said. "Her powers came from a lab experiment involving the splicing of the human gene with the crystalline structure of diamonds. In result of that, this granted her the power of transforming her skin into an organic flexible diamond which gives her superhuman strength." "That name has been mentioned before," Stealth said. "Dr. Richards mentioned her once. Along with some other people like Pym, Stark, Banner, and many others. Must be an upcoming scientist I believe." "Next is Captain Jeffrey Morris," Fury said. "He's a Commissioned Officer in the United States Air Force serving since he was 18 years old." "Salute to him." "As he was on a mission with the Air Force, a meteor shower occurred in which a meteor hit the aircraft, leaving the aircraft to make a crash landing. The physical properties of the meteor fused with his DNA granting him the power of pyrokinesis. Which helped him survived the crash." "Crazy." "Last is Darrell Robinson. Get this. He's an Inhuman." "Really? When did he get powers?" "Don't know. But most likely when the Terrigen Mists was released all over the world. But in that video, he has the power of telekinesis. And also telepathy." "Seems like a powerful one." Fury turned his computer off and he asked Stealth, "Well, what do you think?" Stealth got out of his chair and started walking around the office and said, "Well, they're all black so if we actually became a team we'll be one of the first all-black teams which is not common." "Anything else?" Fury asked. Dominic shook his head and asked, "But do you think they would sign up for something like this? Do you think they will leave their lives to do this?" "Think of how you were several years ago. You were in the same position as them. All these damn explosions y'all get into that's for sure." "Yeah yeah. Came here, an attack happened, got caught in an explosion, almost died, Doctor Strange taking me to pocket dimension healing me and giving me powers." "Did you want to be a superhero after you gained your powers?" "Hell no. You know during that time I always regretted coming on here." "And what did I say to you?" Stealth took a short pause and a deep sigh. "You told me that things always happen for a reason and I got these powers for a reason. You and Strange also said that I had this 'quality' in me that would make me a great hero which is why he gave me these powers." "And look at you now." He got up from his chair and walked to his desk and looked at a picture on his desk of Dominic when he was younger. "You came from being an inexperienced teenager, to working as a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, and now you're an Avenger. In fact, one of the best Avengers I've seen in awhile. You have so much potential in you that I saw and everybody else did. And now you're on your way to probably being one of the most powerful heroes on the planet. Which is why if the team happens, I want you to be the leader." Stealth turned around and looked at his uncle and asked, "You really think so?" "I know so. I saw how you lead those young Avengers last year. I'm surprised they didn't give you your own Avengers team or let alone lead the Young Avengers." "Yeah, but that just for a couple of missions. I don't think of myself as a leader Uncle Nick. I mean… I know I'm no Steve Rogers…" "Stop right there Dominic," Fury said interrupting him. "You always doubted yourself. I remember when you were training your powers one day. You remember that day I told you to use your powers to lift up that small ship?" "Yeah what about it?" Stealth responded. "I remember you didn't want to do it because you thought you weren't strong enough. But then I gave you that little speech that I can't seem to remember. But after I gave you that speech, I saw immediate strength come to your eyes and you turned around and lifted that ship. You were so happy that day. And the rest was history." Stealth gave a deep sigh and said, "You're right." "I am." "Dang, can I finish?" Fury lifted his hands up and gave him the go to to continue. "I need to stop. I always thought that I could never be as great as the heroes that I look up to. The heroes I work with. Always thought that every time I made a mistake that I was useless." "And you know you're more than that. Which is why these three people need to look up to a person like you. Not just cause of the hero you are but the person you are as well. Come here." They walked towards each other and gave each other a hug. After their hug, Stealth asked, "Well how are we gonna contact or recruit them" "Not we. You." Fury said. Dominic gave his uncle a puzzled look. "You who?" he asked. Fury got out a file folder and gave it to Stealth. He opened it up and found all the individuals' information in the folder. "That's all of their information in there." Fury said. "How did you get all of this?" Stealth asked. "I'm the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. what you expect?" he responded. Stealth gave his uncle a shrugged look. "Well if I'm the one gonna be recruiting them, I need my own jet." Stealth said. "Done." Fury said. "Good. I'll start on this tomorrow." "Why not later tonight?" "I just got finished with a mission. I'm tired. I'm going back to headquarters." Stealth started walking out and Fury said, "Hold on." Stealth stopped walking and asked, "What's up?" "Remember what I said." "Always." Stealth smiled and then walked out of his uncle's office on his way back to Avengers headquarters.


	3. Chapter 3

Back in Seattle, Washington, a middle aged white man with thinning brown hair in a wheelchair wearing a button-down shirt and slacks, was strolling around downtown with a backpack on his back with an angry look on his face. He went to his apartment complex and entered his apartment. As he enters his apartment, he slams his backpack down to the ground. He went to his living room and there were pictures of Dominic all over his living room. But these pictures all had either a red X across his face or a sharp object stab through the picture. He looked at his pictures of Dominic and then looked at his legs. "He will pay for what he has done to me." the man said. He went to his bedroom and in his room, there was a large poster of Baron Zemo hanging in his room. As he looked at the poster he said, "Hail Hydra." In his bedroom, there was a table in his room and on top of it there was a pair of long boots that appear to be mechanically made. He went to the table and looked at the boots and stared at them. "As soon as I put these over my legs, I should have the ability to walk again." he said. He grabbed the boots and put one boot over his foot and soon over his entire leg. He did the same thing to his other leg and took a deep breath. He pressed a button on the boots and a couple of dim lights lit on the boots. After that, there were sharp needles in the boots that carefully injected him with a drug he made himself. He let out a slight groan and was pretty relaxed after that. The process was finally done and he took a deep breath. He very slowly tried to get out of his chair. He finally made it out of his chair and stood very still. "Okay." the man said. He started to walk around his room by taking very small steps. As he continued to walk around his room, his step size increased. He walked out of his room and started walking around his apartment in amazement. He stopped walking for a second and said, "Finally! After many attempts, it finally worked!" A big smile appeared on his face and he walked to another part of his apartment. "This medicine in my legs will only last for so long but it is enough for a few hours." he said to himself. In the room he was in, there was a robotic suit in which he built himself inside a glass case. "I will soon have my revenge on Dominic Middleton if my name isn't Christopher Chambers." he said. He looked at a notebook that was sitting on top of a table. He grabbed the notebook and said, "And now I am one step closer to getting my revenge on Stealth." He started flipping through the pages and stopped at one page in particular. "Next stop. The Raft.


	4. Chapter 4

In Cambridge, Massachusetts at Harvard University, there was a class being held inside a lecture hall with over 100 students. The lecture hall had about two big whiteboards with samples of experiments laid out across a long table. On the board it read 'Introduction to Biology'. Then a dark-skinned woman with long curly hair walked in wearing a lab coat with a smile on her face. The woman was none other than Imani Kelly, the woman who was in the video that Stealth and Nick Fury watched. "Good morning everyone." she said excitedly. "Morning Professor Kelly." the class responded. "I hope everyone had a great weekend cause this week, it's probably gonna be hell for y'all." she said with a chuckle. The class nervously chuckled with her. "Before we go into this new chapter, I wanna review what we went over last week." She started writing equations on the board and started explaining them as she wrote them. As she did that, a door opened but nobody was coming in or out. The entire class looked at the door confused as to what might have caused the door to open. Then a student looked around as he heard faint footsteps. He asked his classmate next to him, "Do you hear that?" "Hear what?" the student responded. The faint footsteps then ceased. The class continued as Professor Kelly taught her lesson. About an hour later, she looked at her watch and said, "Well it seems like we have run out of time." The students in her class started packing up. "Before you guys go, please make sure you have your online assignments finished by the end of the week. Have a great day." The students then rushed out of class while Professor Kelly was erasing stuff off her board and packing her things. Then suddenly, Dominic was seen in the back of the classroom coming out of his invisibility wearing a business casual suit with a coat over it and sunglasses. "Quite a class you taught there huh?" he said. Professor Kelly dropped her belongings and let out a scream. "Oh my God what was that?!" she yelled. She turned around and saw Dominic at the back of the room. "Oh my." she said. Dominic started to walk towards her as she went to pick her things up off the ground. "Allow me my dear." Dominic said. He telekinetically got all her things off the ground and gently set them on her desk. "Thank you." she said. "You welcome." he said as he was still walking up to her. He finally got up to Professor Kelly and held out his hand. "Let me introduce myself," he said. "The name's Dominic Middleton but you might better know me as Stealth." Professor Kelly held out her hand and they both shook hands. "I know who you are," she said. "My name is Imani Kelly. But you know me as Professor Kelly." They both laughed. "I love your accent," Professor Kelly said. "The south I presume?" "New Orleans to be exact." Dominic said. "Creole huh? Not often you see those around here." she said with a smile. "May I ask why you are here?" "I wanted to talk to you Professor Kelly," Dominic said. "If that's okay with you." "That's completely fine. And Imani is okay. I'm very casual. You can follow me to my office."

They traveled across campus heading to her office as they were both getting acquainted with each other and students were shocked to see Stealth on campus and took pictures of him. A few minutes later, they arrived at Imani's office and Dominic said, "That was a pretty far walk." "It's basically exercise for me." she said laughing. Dominic took a seat in her office while Imani took a seat at her desk. Dominic looked around her office and was amazed by her awards that she has received. "These are some amazing awards," Dominic said. "You must be quite the talent." "Thank you." she said. She paused for a minute and walked over to the door to close it. She sat back in her seat and asked, "What is the reason you are today Dominic?" He got out a tablet and pulled up the video of the incident involving the experiment that gave her powers. "Could you explain what was going on in this video?" he asked. He gave the tablet to Imani and she took it with a confused look on her face. She played the video and was shocked to see that the video was of her. She watched the video play out and gave out a gasp as the explosion occurred. The video stopped playing and she looked straight into Dominic's eyes scared and asked, "How did you get this video?" "I have resources." "I… I… I thought this video was destroyed. It's been over 2 years." She gave the tablet back to Dominic and he said, "Imani, that experiment that you did should have killed you. It's amazing how you survived that." "What do you plan to do with that video?" she asked. "Nothing." he responded. "So, what are you going to do with me?" "I wanna give you an opportunity." He got out of his seat and walked around Imani's office and looking at her awards. "I need a woman of your talents." he said. "Why?" she asked. Dominic turned around and looked at Imani. "I'm forming my own team," he said. "And I would love for you to be a part of it." Imani stood up and asked, "What kind of team?" "A superhero team what else? With your intelligence and super strength, you would absolutely make a great team member." "I'm honored but I don't know nothing about being a superhero." "Which is why you have me. Plus, I could possibly get you in contact with a few of the smartest people in the world. Stark, Banner, McCoy, Richards…" "Reed Richards? You know him?" "Of course. When you're in the superhero business, you meet some of everybody." "Reed is my favorite scientist and I've been studying his work for awhile now." "He has mentioned you a couple times." "Really?" she asked excitedly. "Yeah. It would be great if you two could meet up." Dominic said. "That would be amazing. But I don't think I could be a superhero." "Which is why I said you have me. Trust me, I've been in the same position you've been in several years ago. And look at where I'm at now." "Yeah, but I can't leave all of this behind. I've only been a professor for about 6 months. I'm currently in the process of getting my doctoral degree. Everything is coming all together and I don't wanna mess this up. Dominic, I appreciate the offer but it's too much for me to risk." "Imani. It's hard at first but you will adjust to it in no time. And I had to leave everything behind too. I left my family, I left my friends, I left my school…" "Yeah but you were just a teenager then. But me, I'm an adult and everything that I want to happen is happening and I just can't mess this up." Dominic gave out a sigh and said, "Hey, I know this seems a lot at first, but could you at least think about it? For me please?" "If you want me on this team so badly, why not use your telepathy and make me a part of the team?" Imani asked as she walked up closer to Dominic. "Because I want you to make the decision and I'm not that kind of person you probably think I am." Dominic said as his phone started ringing. He got it out and saw that it was Nick Fury. "Excuse me, I gotta take this." "Go ahead." Imani said. Dominic walked out her office and answered his phone. "Hello?" "Dominic, I need you to come to the Raft. It's an emergency." Nick said. "What's going on?" "I believe it's a break in. I need you here now." "I'm at Harvard right now but I will be there ASAP." "Get here fast." Dominic hung up the phone and walked back in Imani's office. "Imani, I hate that I have to cut this short, but I've just been informed of an emergency." Dominic said. "Superhero stuff?" she asked. "Yeah. But please think about it. I would really love to have you as part of my team. This could be an amazing opportunity for you. Think about all the stuff you can achieve." "I will Dominic." Dominic got out a piece of paper and a pen and started writing down his phone number. "This is my personal cell phone number. Let me know when you make a decision." He gave it to Imani and she put it in her pocket. "Nice talking with you Professor." he said with a smile on his face walking out the door. "Same to you Dominic."


	5. Chapter 5

As Dominic arrived at the Raft in his jet, he saw a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D agents gathered around the entire Raft. He landed his jet and ran out as fast as he could. He saw his uncle and ran to him. "Uncle Nick!" he yelled. Nick Fury turned around and saw his nephew running towards him. "What's going on here?" Dominic asked. "There appears to be a break in." Nick responded. "What about the villains?" "Some agents got them covered. So far no villains have escaped." "OVER HERE!" an agent screamed. Dominic and Nick Fury rushed to the agent to see what was happening. They saw a few men with equipment in their position making a run for it. "Hey!" Nick Fury yelled. He got out his gun and started shooting at the men but the dodged his bullets. "Split up." Nick told Dominic. Dominic ran off to find other stuff that was going on. Fury kept going after the men until he found one man in a robotic like suit and started to steal some of the belongings that belonged to some of the super villains at the Raft. "Just what I needed." Then there were gunshots firing at him, but his robotic suit deflected the bullets. "Director Nick Fury." he said. "Such an honor to meet you. I'm coming for the thing that's most important in your life. And that's Dominic Middleton." Fury started shooting at the man again but then again there was no effect to him. His robotic arm started to transform into a repulsor gun. He fired the gun at Fury and the blast flew Fury back to a wall knocking him out. The man in a robotic suit said, "Alright boys I got all that I need. It's time to go." He fired his repulsor gun at a wall and made a run for it. Soon as he got outside, he pressed a button on his legs and he started flying away with the equipment that he stole from the Raft. A few men who accompanied him started flying away with him with equipment too with jetpacks on their back. As they flew away, S.H.I.E.L.D agents saw them in the sky. They all shot at the people flying in the sky, but they were all dodging the bullets. Dominic running around the Raft was still looking to see what he can find. He came around a corner and saw his uncle unconscious. "Uncle Nick!" he yelled. He ran to his side and tried everything to wake him up. A few attempts later, Fury opened his eyes and looked straight at Dominic. "What happened?" he asked. "Shoot you tell me." Dominic responded as he looked around. He helped his uncle off the ground and Fury received a call from his communicator. "Fury, they've escaped." an agent said. "Damn it." Fury and Dominic walked out of the Raft and started looking around for clues. An agent walked up to them and said, "So far all that's been stolen were some of the villains' equipment." "What about the villains themselves?" Dominic asked. "All of them are still here in their cells." the agent responded. Another agent walked up and said, "Director, here's the man in charge of this break in." The agent gave him a tablet with information on the man in charge of the break in. Fury took the tablet and started typing stuff on it. Then a picture of a man named Christopher Chambers popped up. "Christopher Chambers." Fury said. He started reading the information on Chris and one part stood out to him. "A former member of Hydra." he said. "What lemme see that." Dominic said. He snatched the tablet from his uncle and started reading it. "Well what was his purpose being here?" Dominic asked. "We don't know sir." the agent responded. As the agent said that, Nick Fury looked at his nephew with a worried look. Both Dominic and Nick looked gave one final read through of Chris's information. They gave it back to the agent and Dominic said, "Thank you." The agent walked away and Dominic and Nick both looked at each other. "He doesn't seem like much of a threat right now," Dominic said. "Y'all can handle this right?" "Yeah, we can," Nick said. "How's the recruiting coming along?" "I've only talked to Imani. I'm meeting Darrell tomorrow and Jeffrey later that day." "And what did Imani say?" "She said she'll think about it. She has too much on her plate to risk. And I won't be mad if she says no." Dominic's phone started to vibrate. He got it out and saw that it was Imani who texted him. The message read, 'Dominic, I thought long and hard about what you said. You were right. I talked about it with my parents and they said it would be a great idea. With that being said, I accept your offer. Please let me know if you have more info on this. Look forward to working with you.' "Speak of the devil," Dominic said, "Imani's in." "Good." Fury said. He got out a piece of paper and gave it to Dominic. "Why's an address on here?" Dominic asked. "It's gonna be your new residence and headquarters for your team," Fury said. "I want you to give the place a look at when you get the chance. S.H.I.E.L.D agents are already working on it as we speak giving the place the most updated technology." "That's great." Dominic looked around and said, "I can stay and help with clean up for a bit." "It's okay," Fury said. "Go ahead and get you some rest. You had a long one today." "Thanks." Dominic said. Dominic walked back to his jet and jetted off home to the Avengers. As Nick watched his nephew jet off, he said, "Gotta do everything in my power to protect him now."


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, Dominic was walking inside the NYPD headquarters. As he walked in, everyone inside was so surprised to see him. So surprised that even a few people walked up to him and asked for autographs and pictures. To Dominic's delight, he politely said yes and started signing autographs and taking pictures. A couple minutes after he was done with that, he walked up to the front desk. "Yes sir, how may I help you?" the front desk clerk asked. She looked up at Dominic and let out a gasp. "Oh my goodness Stealth! What are you doing here?" "I'm here to see a Darrell Robinson. If he is available at any chance." "Okay, I'll check and see if he's available." She started typing on the computer looking for Darrell's availability. "I'm sorry Stealth he's booked for the next couple of hours," she said. "Would you like me to schedule you in for later today at 2:15?" "I'm a busy man today," he responded. "Are you sure you I can't meet with him right now? It's very important." "I'm sorry he has meetings all throughout this morning." "Okay." Dominic said with a smile. Dominic's looked at the clerk and used his telepathic powers and asked, "Where is his office located?" "4th floor, room 409." she said. "Thank you so much." Dominic walked to the elevator and took it to the 4th floor.

As he arrived to the 4th floor, he started looking around and found room 409 with Darrell's name on the door. He politely knocked on the door and a voice said, "Come in." Dominic opened the door and inside was Darrell and a client he was meeting with. Both were surprised to see Dominic arrive in Darrell's office. "Stealth is such a pleasure to meet you." Darrell said as he got up. "Didn't know you would be so tall Mr. Robinson," Dominic said. "Almost as tall as I am." Darrell was a tall, dark skinned man wearing a tan brown suit. He had a muscular build on him and had a light fade hairstyle with waves on his head. "And Dominic is just fine," he said. "Hi, Dominic Middleton." He gave his hand to the client Darrell was talking to and they both shook hands. "James, nice to meet you." the client said. "And I'm terribly sorry to interrupt but do you mind if I can speak with Darrell?" Dominic asked. "Yes of course," James said. "We were just about done anyway." James got his stuff and left out of Darrell's office. "Dominic, please have a seat." Darrell said. Dominic took a seat and asked, "So crime investigator huh? How is that?" "It's great," Darrell responded. "Always been a passion of mine. Coffee?" "Sure." Darrell went to go make him a cup of coffee and Dominic asked, "And that passion would be?" "Helping people," he responded. "It's a major part of my life." He gave Dominic a cup of coffee and sat down in his chair. "Thank you." Dominic said. He took a sip of his coffee and he said, "I bet your parents are very proud huh?" Darrell took a short pause and said nervously, "Yeah they are." Dominic looked at Darrell in a weird way cause of his response. "Darrell, I want to talk to you about something." Dominic said. "And that would be?" Darrell asked. Dominic took another sip of his coffee and asked, "You like helping people, right?" "Of course." "Then I have the perfect opportunity for you." Dominic got his same tablet that he had when he visited Imani. He turned it on and pulled up some files on Darrell. He gave the tablet to Darrell and as he took it, Darrell's face went from calm to angry. He looked at the door and ran up to it and slammed it. "How do you know about this?" he angrily asked. "I have resources." Dominic responded. "Do you know how much I have to do to hide my powers? I hate having these powers." "Darrell, if you don't mind me explaining…" "Yes, I do mind." Dominic took a pause and he got his tablet and pulled up the video of Darrell he saw with his uncle. Darrell walked over to Dominic and was about to say something, but Dominic interrupted him and asked, "Who else knows about this?" He gave the tablet to Darrell and the video he watched just made him angrier. The video finished and Darrell threw Dominic's tablet at the door. But before the tablet hit the door, Dominic saves his tablet by catching it with his hands. "So, I'm guessing nobody knows huh?" Dominic asked. Darrell angrily walked up to Dominic and said, "You do not know what I've been through. These powers have brought nothing but hell to my life. These powers have brought me into a deep depression that I wish not to go back to." "Which is why I want to help you." "I don't need your help." "Darrell listen." Dominic took a seat and said, "I don't know how your powers impacted your life, but I want to try to change that. I plan on forming my own team and want you to be a part of it." "Why do you want me? I'm a monster." "No, you're not. Darrell, I want to help you the way my uncle helped me." "Well, I'm nothing like you Dominic." "I know. Look here. I know these powers might be a little too much for you. But if you just give me a chance and try to help you learn about your powers…" "I know enough about them. It made me into somebody who I didn't think I would become. They make me kill people. It's a curse." "But it can also be a blessing in disguise Darrell." "Mr. Middleton, I need you to leave my office." "But Darrell…" "GET OUT!" Dominic sighed and slowly walked out of his office. Before he left, Dominic got something out of his pocket and put it on Darrell's desk. "I know you keep blaming yourself for the mistakes that you made in the past. Trust me, I did that as well. But you need to stop blaming yourself. I had to tell myself that a long time ago." As Dominic left, Darrell closed the door and sat back at his desk. He got the paper that Dominic left on his desk and looked at it. After a few seconds, he balled it up and threw it away.


	7. Chapter 7

That afternoon in the northern part of New York, there was a factory located in the middle of nowhere. In the sky, there were a couple of men in jetpacks who were flying and then landed on the roof of the factory. The two men walked in through a door that was on the roof and traveled downstairs. As they traveled downstairs, inside the factory were dozens of men who were building suits similar to the one that Christopher Chambers had on when he attacked the Raft. The two men went to their posts and immediately started building the suits. As the workers were building these suits, Christopher, back in his wheelchair because the medicine wore off, came inside the room and everybody stopped what they were doing. Christopher looked around and slightly smiled at the progress that was being made. "You may continue." he said. He went to his private quarters and went to his desk and pulled out a remote. He pressed a button on the remote and a screen popped up in front of him. He got out a keyboard and started typing. That next few seconds, pictures of Imani, Darrell, and Jeffrey popped up. "So, this is who Dominic is trying to get," Christopher said to himself. "A girl with super strength. A boy with telekinesis and telepathy. And a boy who can turn his body to fire. Seems like I need to step up my game." He left his private quarters and went to another part in the factory. He went inside a room and turned on a light. Inside the room, there was robot suit similar to what he had on earlier except this suit was about 20 feet tall. He looked around the robot suit and started examining it. "Since Dominic got a little bit of help, this suit will definitely come in handy." he said while touching it.


	8. Chapter 8

That same afternoon, Dominic was in Sacramento, California getting ready to meet with Jeffrey Morris. He arrived at the Travis Air Force Base and landed his jet there. As he landed his jet, many officers came up to the jet wondering who was in the jet. Dominic walked out of the jet and saw the officers outside of the jet. "Gentlemen," he said. "I'm sorry to be an inconvenience. Could you tell me where Captain Morris is at?" "Yes sir. We'll take you right to him Mr. Middleton." The officers escorted Dominic to the hangar where all the planes were at. There they saw Jeffrey Morris working on a plane that isn't working. The officers walked up to Jeffrey and one of the officers said, "Captain Morris." Jeffrey immediately stopped what he was doing and got up and stood at attention. Jeffrey was a tall man with brown skin and had a lean stature to his body wearing a white t-shirt and blue pants. "Yes sir?" he asked. "Captain Morris, Dominic Middleton is here to speak with you." Jeffrey's face immediately lit up with a smile. "Thank you." Dominic said. "Your welcome sir," the officer said. "Please let us know if you need anything." The officers left the hangar leaving Dominic and Jeffrey alone. "Captain Morris," Dominic said. "Allow me to introduce myself." "Oh no need to," Jeffrey said excitedly. "I know you are. And Jeffrey is fine." They both shook hands and smiled at each other. "First, let me say thank you for what you do for this country. Your service is greatly appreciated it." "Thank you, Dominic. Oh, please let me get you a chair." "No need." Dominic used his powers and used his force fields and shaped them into chairs for him and Jeffrey to sit down in. Jeffrey's eyes lit up as he was amazed by Dominic's powers. "That's amazing." he said, "Trust me, there's a lot more amazing stuff that I can do with this." Dominic said as they both laughed. "Jeffrey, I wanted to talk to you about something." "Sure, anything." Dominic got out his tablet and started typing. A few seconds later, he gave it to Jeffrey and said, "Could you tell me what happened this day right here?" Jeffrey played the video of him on the day he got his powers. "This is the day of the plane crash I was in." "Now right here." Dominic said as he paused the video. "How was this meteor attracted to the jet?" "I don't know. There's no telling." Jeffrey said. "And the meteor itself. What was in it?" "I don't know that either. All that I remember is that the meteor had like this thing to it that made me get stuck on it and that it was very hot. Hot to the point where I thought my skin was melting off. Then as the plane crashed, I felt the rock breaking apart and for some strange reason parts of the rocks started phasing into my body." "Which is how you got your pyrokinesis." Jeffrey then looked at him surprised and asked, "How do you know about that?" "Well you probably don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out," Dominic said. "I saw that news report and your body had literally little to no injuries to it which is amazing. Something like that should've killed you." Jeffrey got up out of his chair and looked at his arms. He looked at his forearms and used his powers and set them on fire. "Nobody knows about this," he said. "And I'm afraid if I tell anyone, I might get kicked out of the Air Force. But what's the point of having them, if you can't use them freely." Dominic walked up to Jeffrey with a smile on his face. "Which is exactly why I wanna talk to you." Dominic said. "I know with being in the Air Force, especially being a Captain, there's a lot on your plate. But, I wanna share something with you. I'm putting together a superhero team and I want you to be a part of it. I think this would be great for you. You'll be helping people and this country in such a big way. Just think about the things you can do as hero. Well you're already a hero so in your case, a superhero. Jeffrey looked at Dominic for a few seconds and he held out his hand and said, "Count me in Dominic. It would be an honor." Dominic smiled and they both shook hands. "You know, you're the only one who said yes immediately." Jeffrey laughed and then he stopped immediately. "Wait," he said. "I can't quit the Air Force just like that. In order for me to quit, I have to do a hardship discharge which will take away my ranking and achievements and I know they won't give that to me." "Jeffrey," Dominic said as he put his hand on his shoulder. "I got it covered." Dominic got out a piece of paper and gave it to Jeffrey and said, "Meet me at this address in a couple days. I'll have S.H.I.E.L.D. come to your home and they'll provide you with the flight to the address on that paper. And my phone number is also on there just in case you have any questions. Call or text if you need anything.


	9. Chapter 9

Couple of days later, Dominic was in upstate New York where he is now at his new residence that S.H.I.E.L.D provided for him and his team. The residence was a 2-story mansion about almost the size of half of an entire football field. The front yard was complete with a beautiful fountain, an amazing lawn and garden, driveway that led to 4 garages, and a statue right at the front of the lawn. Dominic was inside the house, nervously walking around, making sure everything was ready for Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell. He went inside the kitchen and walked to the refrigerator. "Food is fully stocked." he said as he opened and close the refrigerator. Next, he went to the living room and looked around and said, "Okay, everything is set in here." He walked out of the living room and stopped. He put his hands over his face and took a deep breath. "It's gonna be okay," he told himself. "You got this. "Don't worry about it Dominic," a mysterious male voice said. "You're gonna be alright." "Thanks CT." Dominic responded. CT is a user interface computer system that Tony Stark installed for the house. Outside at the gate was Imani pulling in. As she drove up, she was in awe at scenery that she was looking at. "This is definitely something I didn't expect." she said. She stopped her car right in front of the front entrance in the driveway. She got out the car and started getting her things out. "Dominic, I believe that Ms. Kelly has arrived." CT said. Dominic went to the front door and went outside. Imani saw Dominic and waved at him. "I'm here." she said as she was getting her things out. "That stuff looks kind of heavy," Dominic said. "Need any help?" "Oh no thank you. I got it." As she was about to pick up a heavy bin, she turned her arms into her diamond form. She picked up her bin and Dominic asked, "How much can you lift in your diamond form?" "I don't know," she responded. "I never used my powers that much but I lifted part of a car once. That's the heaviest I can lift." "Interesting. We need to test that out one day." "Where can I put this at?" "Oh, just put it inside. We'll decide later where your room can be." She walked inside the house and she said, "This is amazing." Dominic walked in after her with a few stuff in his hands and asked, "Beautiful, isn't it?" "Yes. I bet the person who owned this before must have been very wealthy." "We're actually the first." Imani turned around and said, "You lyin'!" "Nope. S.H.I.E.L.D built this for us. Took them a month to build this." "Ms. Kelly, it is a pleasure to finally meet you." CT said. Imani screamed and looked around. "Who said that?" "I am Computer. Or CT for short. I run all the controls of the house and I am available to assist your everyday needs." CT said. "Controls?" Imani asked. "I'll show you later on." Dominic said. "Dominic, Mr. Morris is arriving." CT said. "Well, let's meet your one of your future teammates." Dominic said. Him and Imani walked outside and saw Jeffrey getting out his car. "Jeffrey!" Dominic yelled as he waved at him. They walked to his car. "Dominic, how are you?" Jeffrey said as he shook his hand. "Fine, how are you?" Dominic asked. "Great. And this place is amazing." "Wait 'til you see the inside." Dominic said. Jeffrey turned his eyes to Imani and said, "Jeffrey Morris." "Imani Kelly." she said as he shook his hand. Dominic started getting Jeffrey's things out of his car and Jeffrey and Imani did the same and followed him inside. A few minutes as they got everything out of both of their cars, all three people were standing in the living room. "Are there more people coming?" Jeffrey asked. "Just one," Dominic said. "But I don't know if he's coming." "Why you say that?" "He didn't take my invite so lightly. So, it might just be us 3." "Dominic, Mr. Robinson is arriving." CT said. "Thank you God." Dominic said softly to himself. All three walked outside to greet Darrell and to help him with his stuff. Darrell got out of his car and looked annoyed. Jeffrey was the first to walk up to Darrell. "Jeffrey Morris." he said. "Darrell Robinson." he said as they shook hands. Imani walked up to him next and said, "Imani Kelly." Both shook hands. Dominic arrived and said, "Glad you could join us Darrell." "Yeah," he said. "Nice place you got here." Dominic looked inside his car and saw he only had a suitcase. "I know that ain't all you bringin'?" Dominic asked. "Yeah it is," Darrell said. "Problem?" "Well, I was thinking you would bring more than just a suitcase." "Well, I thought I give this little team thing a try. Just to see if I like it. Which I probably won't." Jeffrey and Imani both gave awkward looks at each other as Dominic and Darrell were speaking. Darrell started to head to the front and walked inside house with Jeffrey and Imani behind him. Dominic watched them walk inside and said to himself, "Jesus, take the wheel."

Now with all 4 of them in the house, Dominic gathered everyone in the living room and said, "Umm.. Well. First of all, I'm not good with the speeches. But thanks for doing this. I appreciate it. There's a specific reason why my uncle and I chose you guys. Because we thought each and every one of y'all would be something special to the table and serve a great role to this team. I will do everything in my power to be best leader I can be and to make y'all are the best superheroes you can be." Dominic was awaiting their response as they sat on the couch saying nothing while staring down at Dominic. "Okay, how 'bout a tour of this lovely home?" Dominic said. "Sounds great." Imani. They got up and followed Dominic in the hallway. Before they got started, Dominic stopped everyone and said, "Before we start, I want you guys to meet CT." "Thank you Dominic." CT said. Darrell and Jeffrey both looked to see where CT was coming from. "Where is he?" Darrell asked. "I'm a user interface computer system. In short, I control about everything in this house. And here to assist with anything you need." "Like a butler sort of." Jeffrey said. "You can say that." CT said. "Thanks CT," Dominic said. "We'll catch up with you in a bit." "See you later everyone." CT said. They continued down the hallway. As they were walking, Dominic said, "Now down here on the first floor we have our living room that we were just in, the kitchen, dining room, sun room, laundry room, den, library, and a day room. And a couple bathrooms as well." "That's a lot." Imani said. "You guys can look around for yourselves. Let me know if y'all need anything." Dominic said. Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell all went into separate rooms to take a look. Imani went inside the library which was as big a cafeteria with 2 floors of books. "Now I can definitely do some research here if I need to." she said to herself. She smiled and then started looking through some books. Jeffrey was inside the kitchen and started going through everything inside there. He looked inside the pantry and cabinets and said, "Well Dominic for sure doesn't want us to starve. But with all this food, I hope somebody can cook." Darrell was inside the day room and he sat down in one of the chairs. "I don't know what I got myself into," he said. "But I hope that I made the right decision." All 3 took a few more minutes to look all around the first floor until they met back up with Dominic at the front entrance of the house where there was also a staircase to the 2nd floor. Jeffrey, Imani, and Darrell were looking around for their stuff. "Wasn't our stuff right here?" Imani asked. "I thought so too." Jeffrey said. "Follow me." Dominic said. Everyone followed Dominic up the stairs. As they were exploring the second floor, Dominic was giving the spill on the current floor they were on. "On this floor is where our rooms are located," he said. "There are four main rooms, which is ours, and also 2 guest rooms just in case we have company. There are also four full sized bathrooms on this floor. Also, we have a balcony outside that has a nice view just ahead there. And I put you guys stuff inside y'alls room. Take a look." They took a look inside of their rooms and was amazed by the look of it. "A walk-in closet?" Imani asked. "Oh, this will definitely come in handy for my wardrobe." She laughed. They then walked outside to the balcony view and all three of their mouths dropped when they saw the view of their backyard with a nice lake behind it. Dominic looked at their faces and said, "I'm guessing you guys like the view." "I can honestly spend all my life looking at this." Darrell said. Outside the balcony, they were looking at their backyard which had an amazing lawn the size of a high school gymnasium, a basketball court, a swimming pool and jacuzzi, and the lake sitting behind the backyard. "Breathtaking." Jeffrey said. "That's not even the best part." Dominic said. He walked back inside with everyone else following him. In the hallway, there was a button on the wall next to the staircase. Dominic pressed the button and an elevator door opened. "Where did that come from?" Jeffrey asked. "All of our elevators are camouflaged in this house." Dominic said. They all walked inside the elevator and the door closed. "The Base please." Dominic said. "Taking you the Base." CT said. "The elevator is voice activated by our voices," Dominic said. "Everybody has access to the first two floors. But only us will have access to the Base." 10 seconds later, the door opened arriving at the Base. They walked out the elevator and Dominic said, "Welcome to the Base." The base was empty and sparse and had a futuristic but modern look to it. "Wow," Imani said. "Everything looks so hi-tech." "I'll let CT take over this point." Dominic said. "Thank you, Mr. Middleton." CT said. All four of them started walking around and went inside one of the rooms which was a lab. The lab was filled with chemicals, physics, and electronics. "Welcome to the lab," CT said. "Imani, this might be of interest to you." "It is." she responded excitedly with a smile on her face. "The lab contains some of the most up to date equipment for either you Imani or anyone else to use for experiments for your liking." Everyone started walking around the lab with Imani touching some the materials that the lab offered. "I could stay in here for hours," she said. "So many things I can come up with. Oh, I can't wait." Suddenly, there was a door that opened to another room. "Look inside this room." CT said. They walked through the door and went inside another room full of operating beds. "This is the medical facility," CT said. "This room has all of the medical needs that you might need ranging from something simple as band aids to x-rays and everything above." They all took a quick look around the room before they walked out. The next room they walked into was the jet hangar. The first thing they see when they walked inside was the huge jet. "Oh my God." Jeffrey said. "I ain't even know the jet would be finished by now." Dominic said. "This is the hangar bay," CT said. "In this hangar, your main transportation will be located here along with other stuff. Please come down the steps." They walked down the steps and saw that the hangar bay was bigger than they thought which had a runway and at the end was a large door to let the jet out. They walked to the back of the hangar and saw that there was door and Darrell opened it. "Now this room is where all of your physical files will be located," CT said. "From heroes to villains, I can provide any information that I can." "Sounds like my type of thing." Darrell said. After looking around in that room, they walked to the jet. "Now how do we get inside the jet?" Imani asked. "My apologies." CT said. The jet's door opened and they all walked inside. The jet had a dressing room in the back to where anybody needed to change. In the front were the main controls of the jet. They all walked up to it and Jeffrey sat in the pilot's chair. "Well some of this seems familiar." Jeffrey said. "Don't worry Mr. Morris," CT said. "I'll be able to teach you the controls to this jet, but I will save that for another time." "Also, I was hoping you will become the pilot of this team based on your experience." Dominic said. "Really?" Jeffrey asked. "It's yours if you want it." "You damn right I want it." "Let's continue the tour everyone," CT said. "There's a still a little left to see." They left the hangar bay and went to the next room. Inside that room was just a control panel and a glass window showing a big wide-open space. "What's this right here?" Darrell asked. "This right here Mr. Robinson is the Training Complex." CT said. "So, where's the stuff?" Imani asked. "Everything is controlled via the control panel that is right in front of you all," CT said. "The technology for this room was provided by none other than the Black Panther. His Wakandan technology features 32-bit color images at 300 gigabytes per second, creating hard-light laser constructs of anything imaginable that are virtually indistinguishable from reality." "So, it's like virtual reality?" Imani asked. "In a way yes," CT said. "Except that it is real. It also features extensive modeling programs allow for a great variety of realistic environments, as well as atmospheric and dust effects, while realistic wind and exhaust effects are created using progressed waved tractor beams. Projected pinpoint gravity lenses allow simple laser beams to be redirected as other light sources, with acoustic engines providing accurate noise level and frequencies. The Room's World View Model Library has digital models of over 50 million objects and their attributes, including weapons, vehicles, buildings, and aliens. The Training Complex will be the main place of learning your powers and be a practice facility for you all for any upcoming battles that you all will have in the future." "That's a whole mouthful right there." Jeffrey said. They walked out of that room and went to last room of the Base. "The last room we'll look at today is the Core Room." CT said. The room had control panel all on the wall with a huge computer screen right in the front of the room. "This is basically the control room of the entire house as you can see all of the controls located on the walls. In this room is where you will have your mission briefings. Information will come up on this screen right in front of you." CT turned on the screen with pictures of all 4 of them came up on the screen and information on their powers. "The computer screen will also give you a look of the house." CT said. The computer screen changed to a live look at the front yard. It then changed to multiple screens with a live look around every area of the house. "Also, you can't go wrong with a security system." CT said. Suddenly, guns started coming out of the grass, the house, the fountain, the basketball court, and the pool. "Now that's what you call protection." Darrell said. The guns then went back underground and the computer screen turned off. "Well that is all that I have for you today," CT said. "Please let me know if you need anything else." "Thanks CT." Dominic said. "That was some tour." Imani said. "My head hurts now." Jeffrey said. "Well… How bout we start some training?" Dominic asked with a smile. "A nap sounds better." Darrell said. "Yeah, I am kind of tired." Jeffrey said with a yawn. Darrell, Imani, and Jeffrey left the Core Room leaving Dominic in there by himself. "Yeah not a good idea," he said to himself. "Maybe, we can try again tomorrow. Yeah we can try again tomorrow." Dominic left the Core Room and went to go take a nap like everyone else did.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning, Dominic was in the kitchen whipping up breakfast for his guests. As he was doing that, he was also talking amongst himself thinking what kind of plan should he have for today. "Okay, so first I give them breakfast and then I say, 'Boom. Let's go to the Training Complex and practice.' No, it shouldn't be that way." He was nervously walking around the kitchen until Jeffrey walked inside still in his pajamas. "Smells great in here man." Jeffrey said. Dominic stopped walking and turned around to him and said, "Oh. Morning. How did your night go?" "Great. Thanks for asking." Dominic started back cooking breakfast and Jeffrey asked, "Do you need any help with anything?" "Umm…" Dominic hesitated. "Yeah, could you place the eggs and bacon down on the dining room table?" "Sure, no problem." Jeffrey responded. As Jeffrey was doing that, Imani and Darrell came down to the kitchen in their pajamas as well. "Wow, you're cooking up a storm here Dom!" Imani said excitedly said. "Yeah, I gotta admit, it smells awesome down here." Darrell said. "Thanks, y'all." Dominic said. As Dominic was finishing up, he said, "Okay breakfast is almost ready, so you guys can go to the dining room." Darrell and Imani went to the dining room and sat down at the dining table where Jeffrey was. "Good morning Jeff." Imani said. "Morning. How are y'all?" Jeffrey asked. "Good. Just ready to eat this great breakfast that Dominic cooked." Imani said. "Whoever knew superheroes could cook though?" Darrell asked. Suddenly, plates of toast, sausage, waffles, and potatoes came into the dining room floating in the air thanks to Dominic's force fields. The plates were set at the table and Dominic came walking in with plates in his hands and said, "That is where you're wrong. Lots of superheroes can cook. Like me, I get my cooking skills from my parents." He gave the three individuals their plates and then sat down at the table. "Both of my parents are restaurant owners. So, I've been raised by chefs my whole life." Dominic started grabbing some food to put on his plate while everyone else was staring at him. He stopped what he was doing and said, "Y'all gonna eat? I ain't slave in the kitchen just for nothing." Everyone else grabbed food and started eating and having casual conversation. "So, Imani, I heard you were a professor." Jeffrey said. "I am," she responded. "Well, former professor now that I'm here." "What do you teach?" Darrell asked. "Basic Chemistry and Biology. I have my master's in Chemical Biology and Chemistry." "2 master's degrees?" Darrell asked. "Yessir." Imani said. "From where?" Jeffrey asked. "Harvard," Imani responded. "Both my bachelor's and master's." "Impressive. Have you thought about getting a doctorate?" Jeffrey asked. "Well, that's what I was in the process of before Dominic scooped me up." Imani said laughing. "But I am thinking about going back and finishing it when the time is right." "Time may never be right now that you're stuck here doing this." Darrell said. Dominic paused from eating his food and gave Darrell a side-eye for what he just said. "So, Jeff. Tell us about you." Dominic said. Jeffrey stopped eating his food and said, "Well, I serve in the military as a Captain in the Air Force." "Thank you for your service by the way," Darrell said. "We greatly appreciate it." Jeffrey smiled and said, "Thanks. I've been with the Air Force for about several years now. I joined while I was in college. And from then on, life's been great. Couldn't get any better. Until now." Jeffrey started laughing. "Darrell what about you?" Imani asked. "Oh, there's not much about me." Darrell said. "Come on Darrell," Dominic said. "They told a little about themselves. Why can't you?" Darrell gave a slight pause and looked down at the ground. "Umm well," he hesitated. "Well, I've worked with the NYPD for several years. Came in as an intern, then from there I became a police officer to where I am now a crime scene investigator. That's pretty much it." "Is that what you wanted to be your whole life?" Imani asked. "Umm no," Darrell responded. "Hopefully either Chief of Department or Police Commissioner is the end goal for me. I'm all about justice. Coming from Harlem, serving in the police department has been a big part of my life." "That's great to hear." Jeffrey said. Dominic finished his food and said, "Sorry to be Debbie downer of things but it's a good thing y'all getting to know each other. But I actually have something planned for you this morning." "And that would be?" Darrell asked. "I wanna see how well you guys use your powers. Just to see where y'all at and where we go from there." "How hard is this gonna be?" Jeffrey asked. "Doesn't matter how hard it is," Dominic said. "All that matters is that we know how to handle our powers. Easy or hard. Time consuming or not." Dominic picked up an apple from the table and said, "Meet y'all in the Training Complex in 10. Y'all might wanna change out of your pj's." He took a bite of his apple and walked off.

15 minutes later, Dominic was in the control room of the Training Complex waiting on everybody else to get there. He looked at his watch and said, "It's been 15 minutes, where are they?" Soon after he said that, Jeffrey and Imani walked in changed into workout clothes. "Where's Darrell?" Dominic asked. "Probably back in his room." Imani said. "He didn't seem like he wanted to do this," Jeffrey said. "I mean can't you just use your telepathy to force him to come down here?" "That's one thing I don't use my telepathy for," Dominic said. "I don't use my telepathy like that unless it's absolutely necessary." They waited a couple more minutes until Dominic said, "Forget about it if he doesn't want to do it, fine by me. Imani, you're up." "Up for what?" she asked. "Walk through this door that I'm about to open." Dominic said. He opened the door and she walked down the steps to the empty wide-open space. She looked up at where Dominic and Jeffrey were at and asked, "So what now?" "Change into your diamond form." Dominic said. Imani closed her eyes and concentrated hard enough to change her full body into her diamond form. Jeffrey looked in amazement as her diamond skin was glowing reflecting the light that was hitting her skin. "Wow." Jeffrey said. "What now?" "Hope you have fast reflexes." Dominic said. He started typing some buttons on the Training Complex's control pad and suddenly, a car came flying down but Imani caught it just in time. She's struggling a bit to hold it steady. After a few seconds, she threw it across the room and the car smashed into chunks of pieces. "How did that feel?" Dominic asked. "I feel okay," Imani responded. "Not too bad." "Then let's raise the stakes then." Dominic said. He started pressing buttons and Jeffrey asked, "What are you about to do now? "You'll see." Dominic responded. Imani started looking around to see what was going to happen and a 5,000-pound tow truck appeared right in front of her. Stunned at what she saw, she gave herself a deep sigh and walked up to the truck. She stretched out her arms and proceeded to lift the truck. She was beginning to struggle a little bit and then part of the truck started coming off the ground. "Come on Imani, you got this." Dominic said. She progressively lifted more and more of the truck off the ground. A few seconds later, she got the entire truck off the ground and started to lift it over her head. With that, she was still struggling to lift it over her head. "Can she do it?" Jeffrey asked. "She can." Dominic said. After that, she lifted the truck over her head, but her arms gave out making her fall to the ground and the truck coming down on top of her. "IMANI!" Dominic and Jeffrey screamed. They both came rushing down to her aid. Dominic used his powers to move the truck away from her body to check and see if she was alright. "She's still in her diamond form." Dominic said. Imani opened her eyes and got up as if she was okay. "Well that's a first." she said. "Are you alright?" Jeffrey asked. "Oh yeah I'm fine," she responded. Just never lifted something that heavy before that's all." "Glad you're alright." Jeffrey said. "That was impressive for a starter like you," Dominic said. "And you've never lifted nothing like that before, right?" "No, that's the heaviest I've lifted." Dominic then smiled at Imani and said, "Well with some more practice you might be as strong as She-Hulk one day. Stand still for a moment Imani." Dominic looked at the control panel and asked, "CT, can you pull up the stats of Imani please? And pull up an x-ray machine on her please?" "Can do Dominic." CT said. Dominic walked back up to the control panel and looked at the stats that CT pulled up on Imani. Dominic examined her stats while also looking at her x-ray. "Her entire insides are completely diamond," he said to himself. "Like complete solid diamond." "Everything good?" Imani asked. Dominic continued to still look at her stats and was writing down notes on his notepad that he brought. "Well everything looks good from here," Dominic said. "From your strength, it looks like for now you're able to lift up to 6 tons. And since you said you've never lifted that much before, if you keep on working on your strength, you could be lifting up to 10 tons before the year is over with. And with your super strength, your stamina should increase as well as your durability. But we will go over all them things another day. And also…" Dominic used his telepathy to see if he can break into Imani's mind, but he couldn't. "With your hard solid diamond, even the most powerful of telepaths can't get inside your head. Including me." Imani starts looking up and down her body and says, "So much things I can do with this that I would never think of." "There's more to it than you know," Dominic said. "Alright Jeff, let's see what you got." Imani turned back into her regular form and walked up the stairs to the control room to watch what Jeffrey was about to do. "Jeff, all I want from you is to see how hot you can get." "Easy." Jeffrey said. "You say it's easy but it's harder than you think." Dominic got out a couple pair of sunglasses and gave one pair to Imani and kept the other for himself. "You might wanna put those on before just in case." Dominic said. They both put on their sunglasses and Dominic said, "Let it burn." He pulled up a temperature scale on the control panel and Jeffrey turned his entire body on fire. Imani and Dominic looked at the scale and saw that his low-level flames were unexpectedly high. "Dominic, with him just being on fire for like 5 seconds, he's already at 500 degrees." Imani said. "Alright, Jeff give me all you got." Dominic said. Jeffrey concentrated even harder and his body temperature slowly increased. "Imani look at his flames." Dominic said. His flames started to get larger and larger with his body temperature increasing. "Now his body temperature is at 1500 degrees Fahrenheit." Dominic said. "I can try to go hotter but only a little!" Jeffrey yelled. "Just let me know when you need to stop." Dominic said. Jeffrey kept getting hotter and hotter. His body temperature was now at 5000 degrees Fahrenheit. With that, his feet started to lift up several inches from the ground. "Is he trying to fly?" Imani asked. They both moved closer to the window and to see if he was off the ground and they couldn't believe their eyes. Jeffrey let out a scream and a sudden bust of extreme heat and bright white light came from his body with Dominic and Imani shielding their eyes away from the bright light that the sunglasses couldn't do. Jeffrey fell to his knees with his clothes burned off leaving him naked on the cold hard empty space. Dominic and Imani opened their eyes and were surprised to find him naked. "I'll go get him some clothes." Imani said running out the room. Dominic came running to his aid and put his jacket over him to cover him up. "You good?" he asked. "You were right," Jeffrey said panting. "It was harder than I said." "Told you man. But what you did at the end, that was a major thing for you to do. That was about supernova right there." "What's that?" "That you're almost as hot as the damn sun. Any hotter than that, you could've brought this entire room to flames. Hell, maybe the whole house would be in flames. Would it CT?" "Possibly." CT said. Imani came down with his change of clothes and said, "That heat is going through the entire mansion now. I hope there's a quick way to cool that down." "Already covered Ms. Kelly" CT said. "Thank you." she said. "Imani, is there any way that you could fireproof his entire wardrobe? Dominic asked. "Yeah, I can find a way," Imani said. "Might take a while but I can find something." "Thanks Imani." Jeffrey said. "There's more to your fire powers than you think," Dominic said. "Flight, manipulation, generation, the nova flame, and more. I need to study on this more as I don't know much about pyrokinesis. And you should as well. But go ahead and get dressed. Thanks for coming down here y'all." "Anytime." Jeffrey said. "Thanks." Imani said. They both walked out of the Training Complex and Dominic said to himself, "Well, I think that went pretty well for a start." "It did." CT said. Dominic a little shaken from his response said, "I didn't know you can hear me." "I have ears everywhere Mr. Middleton."

Unbothered by what everybody else was doing, Darrell was in his room reading a book. For a few minutes, he was all to himself. Until later a knock at door was made. "Who is it?" Darrell asked. "It's Dom." Dominic said. Darrell let out a sigh and said, "Go ahead and come in." Dominic came in slowly to make sure he wasn't interrupting anything. "Am I coming in at a bad time?" he asked. Darrell turned around slowly looking at him and said, "Um no. It's fine." He turned back around and kept reading his book. "Umm," Dominic said. "We kinda missed you down there at the training session." "I figured." Darrell responded. Dominic rolled his eyes and asked, "Well, why weren't you down there?" "You know why." "And that why is?" Dominic asked while his voice raised a pitch. "I told you the first day that we met. You know how I feel about my powers." "This is why you're here right? To figure out your powers? Why else would you be here?" "I don't know. You seem like you have all the answers." "And I don't." Dominic gave out a sigh and looked around Darrell's room. He then walked over to Darrell and asked, "Darrell, you wouldn't be here if you were trying to figure out how your powers worked?" Darrell closed his book and looked at Dominic and said, "I guess." "Which is why I am here to help you and the others out." Dominic sat next to Darrell and said, "Look, I might not be the best at this thing. But I'm willing to help any way that I can. Look at your powers this way. Think of them as you got them for a reason. That's what I told myself when I got my powers. I didn't want them, but I did what I can with them. And look at where I am at now. Never did I think I would do something like this. Embrace em." Darrell look at Dominic and said, "Fine." He got up off his bed and said, "Let's go the Training Complex." Dominic smiled and said, "Alright then."

They both left Darrell's room and walked over to the Training Complex. As they were walking, Dominic gave Darrell a little insight of his powers. "With your powers, they're very similar to mine. From the telekinesis to the telepathy. They all work with the mind. Especially telepathy. Telepathy can be a tricky thing to hang of." They both walked inside the control room of the Training Complex. Dominic pressed a few buttons on the control panel and the door opened to the empty wide-open space. "Follow me." Dominic said to Darrell. They both walked downstairs to the wide empty open space and as soon as they got to the last stair, a crash test dummy appeared out of nowhere. Startled by the discovery, Darrell asked, "Where did that come from?" "If that scares you, imagine what everything else this room would do to you." Dominic said while laughing. Dominic walked over to the test dummy and stood next to it. "The first thing we're gonna work on is your telekinesis," Dominic said. "Telekinesis can be easy to learn at first but can get a little bit harder as you learn." Darrell shook his head and asked, "And what's the task here?" "Lift up this test dummy using your tk." Dominic responded. "Alright." He lifted his arm and had his hand open facing the test dummy. He was making small noises thinking it was gonna help him activate his powers. "I don't know why I can't do it." Darrell asked. "Because you're not focusing on it correctly," Dominic said. "Your hand might be out doing the job, but it's really not. It's all in the mind as I said before. Focus on that dummy with your mind." Darrell looked at me and then looked back at the dummy. He tried to do what he said but nothing was working. "I can't do it," Darrell said. "And I don't know why." Dominic walked over to Darrell and asked, "Do you remember the last time you used your powers?" "Yeah." Darrell took a pause and said, "That video." "Do you remember the emotions you had during that time?" "Dominic, why is that important?" "Cause we shouldn't let our emotions take control of our powers. Doing that can lead to unimaginable things. Trust me, I know." "So, you think that…" "I ain't saying nothing bad about you Darrell. It's common." Dominic took a slight pause and said, "Close your eyes." "What?" Darrell asked in a confused way. "Just do it." Darrell did as he said and Dominic stood behind Darrell. "Good Darrell," Dominic said. "Now clear your head. And focus on the dummy." Darrell took a deep breath and Dominic said, "I'm gonna help you out on this." Dominic put his fingertips on both sides of Darrell's head. "What are you doing?" Darrell asked. "Shh. Just clear your head." As Darrell did that, Dominic used his telepathy to calm his head down and help him focus. Several seconds later, Dominic releases his fingers from Darrell's head and said, "Open your eyes and focus on that dummy." Darrell opened his eyes and Dominic took several steps back. "Clear my mind." Darrell said. He lifted his arm up and opened up his hand facing the dummy. As he did that, the dummy very slowly lifted off the ground. "Okay, that's good," Dominic said. "Keep focus." As Darrell kept focus, the dummy was now getting higher and higher off the ground. Darrell opened his eyes and saw that he lifted the dummy a few feet in the air. "I did it." he said. "Okay Darrell, keep that thing in the air," Dominic said. "CT." As soon as Dominic called it out, an obstacle course started rising out of the ground. "Don't be afraid." Dominic said. "Just try to get it to through this course. And keep focus." "Got it." Darrell said. He slowly started moving it around the obstacle course. "Keep focus." He said repeatedly to himself. He got the dummy through a couple of moving hoops and gates. He then came up to a moving laser grid. He paused for a few seconds taking a deep breath. As he was trying to get through the laser grid, the laser grid then hit the test dummy and test dummy was burned. "Damn it!" Darrell yelled out. The test dummy was then out of Darrell's control and it fell to the ground. "I knew this was going to happen." he said. "It's okay," Dominic said. "We all can't get it right the first time." "Every time I use my powers, something bad always happens." "Darrell, you have to get that out of your head." "I can't Dominic. It's too hard." Darrell turned around facing the wall and Dominic walked up to him. "It's not the end of the world," Dominic said. "We still can work on this." Darrell looked at Dominic and said, "The last time I used my powers, I killed someone. That's too traumatizing to think about. And that's always gonna stick on my mind. I vowed to myself that I would never use these powers again. And then I use them, and look what happened. I failed." "Darrell, there's no reason to beat yourself up over this. Just because you fail at something doesn't mean you give it up forever." Dominic, turned around and looked at the obstacle and said, "We can still work through this." "Easy for you to say." Darrell said. Darrell left out of the Training Complex and stormed back to his room. "Shit." Dominic whispered to himself. CT then took down the obstacle course and asked, "I guess that went kind of okay, don't you think so Mr. Middleton?" "Yeah, I guess," he said disappointedly. "I didn't know he was gonna be this hard to deal with." "Not everything is gonna be easy." CT said. "I know. I just don't know if I'm cut out for something like this." Dominic let out a deep sigh and left the Training Complex.


	11. Chapter 11

At the S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier, some of the agents were preparing to go on a mission. They were seen grabbing their weapons, putting on their uniforms, and readying the jet. Nick Fury came in to watch the agents prepare. A couple seconds later, an agent walked up to Fury and said, "Director Fury, we're ready to head out." Fury looked around and said, "We only have one shot at this. We cannot mess this up." He gave one last look at all the agents and said, "Be on your way." All the agents ran inside the jet and prepared for takeoff. The jet took off to their destination and Fury went to the bridge of the Helicarrier. He went to the main computer of the bridge to check on the status of the agents on their mission. He saw that they were 20 minutes away from their destination. A video call from one of the agents came up on the computer. "Director Fury," he said. "Is there anything that we need to know before we go in?" "No," Fury said. "I will let you guys know if anything comes up. Fury out." He ended the video call and stood at the computer awaiting their status. On the jet with the agents, they were getting closer and closer to their destination. As they saw their destination, there was a guy standing on the roof with a rocket launcher. "Guys, what is he holding?" one of the agents asked. The guy on the roof fired the rocket launcher and one of the agents screamed, "It's a missile!" The missile got closer and closer to the jet, but the pilot misses it by a second from hitting the jet. The guy on the roof got out his walkie talkie and said, "Chambers. S.H.I.E.L.D is here." "Roger that." Christopher said. Chambers was in his wheelchair in a big room full of his henchmen in robotic suits. He turned around and said, "Go show them what we got." The henchmen fired up their suits and the ceiling above them started opening. The S.H.I.E.L.D agents saw the roof opening and the man on the roof jumped inside the building. Suddenly, a small army of men in robotic suits came flying out of the building and started attacking the agents. "FURY! WE'RE BEING AMBUSHED!" a S.H.I.E.L.D agents said over his communicator. "Give em all y'all got!" Fury yelled. The pilot of the jet pressed a button on the jet and the jet started to fire bullets at the henchmen. One of the henchmen aimed his blaster at the engine of the jet and he fired at it. The jet started to malfunction and was seen starting to fall from the sky. The pilot did everything he could to get control of the jet back. "Prepare for a crash landing!" the pilot said. The jet continued to fall from the sky until it crashed. The agents took no harm from the crash landing. "Everybody alright?" one of the agents asked. "Yeah, we're fine." another agent said. "Then let's go finish the mission." The door opened from the jet and the agents came running out preparing for battle. All the henchmen flew down to the ground and landed across from the agents. "Let's finish this." one of the agents said. The agents started firing their guns and the bullets were bouncing off their suits. The henchmen starting jogging towards the agents taking no effect from their guns. The henchmen got to the agents and started attacking them hand to hand. Back at the Helicarrier, Fury was trying to get a hold of the agents after he saw that their jet has crashed. "Come on dammit!" he said. The agents and the henchmen were both fighting hand to hand. The agents seemed to be winning but then a sound was made on the henchmen's suit. The agents paused and looked at the henchmen. "Our blasters are finally online!" one of the henchmen yelled. He grabbed one of the agents and lifted them off the ground. He got his blaster and blasted him through the chest killing him. The other agents looked at their fallen teammate in shock. The agents then yelled and started attacking the henchmen. The henchmen then started to beat the agents brutally. After a several seconds of brutally fighting the agents, the henchmen then finished them off by blasting them with their blasters killing all the agents. At the Helicarrier, Fury was still having trouble getting in touch with the agents. A video call appeared on the screen. He accepted the call and the video showed all the fallen agents. "You really need to have a plan B Director Fury." A mysterious voice said. The camera then shows Christopher's face. "You know, you think you got this all figured out, but you really don't. You really need watch yourself. But not just yourself but also Dominic. I got something worse planned for him and his little friends. So, watch yourself Fury. You never know what's gonna come to you." The video abruptly ended with static appearing on the screen. Fury banged his fists on the table repeatedly in anger. Huffing and puffing, Fury stormed out the bridge and went to his private quarters. He went inside his private quarters and sat at his desk thinking. He looked at his picture he had of Dominic. "You gotta do what you gotta do," Fury said to himself. "If he wants war, he's gonna get it." At Christopher's headquarters, the henchmen were still standing around the agents' dead bodies. Christopher then appeared and looked at the dead bodies on the ground. "Clean this mess up." he said. He went back inside and the henchmen did as he said.


	12. Chapter 12

A couple of weeks has passed. At the mansion, Dominic was in the Training Complex nervously walking around wearing an all-black training suit that Imani made. "Is there something wrong?" CT asked. "This is really gonna be a test for me," Dominic said to himself. "Anything could go wrong. I could lead them the wrong way. But you can't show them how doubtful you are right now. They need somebody to look up to and that person happens to be me." "Mr. Middleton," CT said. "I think you will be quite alright. There's nothing to be nervous about." "I don't know CT. We'll see." Jeffrey, Imani, and Darrell walked into the Training Complex also wearing the same training suit that Dominic had. "What's up y'all." Dominic said. "Hey Dom." Jeffrey said. "Imani, thanks again for the suits you designed." Dominic said. "Oh, it was no problem at all," Imani said. "I'm still working on the other thing too." "No rush." "So, is this finally our team session?" Darrell asked. "It is." Dominic responded. "Oh cool," Jeffrey said. "Should be fun." "You never know." Darrell said with a shrug. Jeffrey then looked at Darrell with a bitter look. "Alright y'all," Dominic said. "I've been training y'all individually for the past couple weeks and we're finally here. Our first team session together. This session might not go how we want to but there's always room to improve." "The suits we have on are our basic training outfits," Imani said. "Each suit is designed and operated differently based on our powers, but all have come with unstable molecules and little bit of armor on each." "How is this training session gonna go?" Jeffrey asked. "Who knows?" Darrell replied. "CT." Dominic said. "Setting up the session now." CT responded. The Training Complex then turned into Times Square. Jeffrey, Darrell, and Imani looked around as they stood there in excitement. "This is awesome." Jeffrey said. "Location, Times Square," CT said. "Your mission will be to save the civilians trapped in different buildings around Times Square. With this mission, you will also have to defeat the robots that are all around this area." "Really?" Darrell asked. "What's wrong?" Imani asked. "Robots?" "They aren't just your typical robots Darrell," CT said. "Some may appear to be easy but most of them will you give a challenge." "Everybody have their communicators?" Dominic asked. "Yeah." replied everyone else. All of them put their communicators on and were ready for their first session together. "CT, I think we're ready." Dominic said. "You may begin now." CT said. Suddenly, robots started appearing out of nowhere from all ends. Everybody looked around at the robots coming towards them from in front and behind. "Jeffrey and I will take the front end," Dominic said. "Imani and Darrell. Take the back. Dominic started running towards the robots while Jeffrey turned into his fiery form and hovered in the air. Dominic turned invisible and the robots stopped for running. Jeffrey then started throwing fireballs at robots creating a distraction for Dominic. The robots started firing their guns at Jeffrey, but he was dodging them. Then, Dominic started attacking the robots hand to hand while he was still invisible. The robots were trying to spot him, but they couldn't find him as he started attacking them one by one. Imani was in her diamond form attacking the robots with her grabbing them and then she threw them in air and threw a car right at them while still the air. Darrell was holding back from his powers as he was attacking the robots hand to hand. A robot then grabbed him and threw him against a car. "Darrell!" Imani yelled. She ran to the robot that attacked him and picked it up and ripped it in half. After that, she walked over to Darrell to help him up. "Why aren't you using your powers?" Imani asked. "Because." Darrell responded. "Because why?" Imani asked. A couple robots were then running towards them, but Jeffrey saved them at the last second by coming behind him and burning the robot's head off. "Y'all okay?" Jeffrey asked. "Yeah." Imani said. "Guys," Dominic said over his communicator. "A little help would be appreciated. I'm inside one of the stores over here north of us. Get here fast." "On our way," Imani said. "Let's go." Jeffrey grabbed Imani and Darrell and started flying over to where Dominic was at. They got to the store and helped Dominic attacked the robots. As Dominic was attacking robots, he yelled out, "Imani! The civilians are in the back of this place. We need you to get the civilians. You're our strongest one." Imani defeated the last group of robots that were attacking her and ran to the back of the store. She got to the back and saw that 10 robots were guarding the civilians that were tied up. All the robots then jumped on Imani to make sure she didn't save the civilians. She was struggling to break free of the robots. But she kicked her legs up and threw a couple robots off her. She jumped back up and was free of the robots' control. She grabbed one of the robots, ripped it in half, and started attacking the rest of the robots using the robot she ripped up as weapons. She defeated the robots and ran to the civilians to free them. As she was untying them, one of the civilians said, "Thank you! Thank you!" The civilians then ran out of the store to find a safe place to hide. As she watched them run to a safe place, she had a look on her face. "Maybe, this is what Dominic was talking about." she said to herself. She ran back to her teammates to complete the next objective. "Next set of civilians is on top of Hotel Carter." Dominic said. They ran outside and Dominic put a force field around everyone and started flying to Hotel Carter. They got to Hotel Carter and the robots started shooting at the team. Luckily, Dominic's force field was reflecting the blasts of the guns. Dominic then popped up a force field underneath some of the robots that sent them flying the air. They landed on the roof and started attacking the robots. Dominic saw the group of civilians and turned invisible. He quietly ran to the civilians and freed the civilians. "Hang on." Dominic said. He put a force field over the civilians and telekinetically flew them down to the ground in a safe place. After he did that, he rejoined his team in battle to finish off the robots. Darrell was finally using his powers as he was taking out the robots with ease. Jeffrey threw a fireball at one of the robots, but the robot dodged it. The fireball hit Darrell on his chest. "Hey man what the hell was that for?!" he yelled. "I swear it was an accident." Jeffrey said. Luckily, Darrell was unharmed from the fireball thrown at him, but he telekinetically picked up a robot and threw it straight at Jeffrey knocking him down. Surprised at what he did, Jeffrey quickly got up and yelled, "Are you serious?!" "Maybe if you have some good aim that wouldn't have happened." Darrell responded. "You know what your problem is Darrell?" Jeffrey said while walking up to him. "Tell me." Darrell said in a snarky tone. Jeffrey got up in Darrell's face and said, "Your problem is…" "First of all, you can back the fuck up out of my face Jeff." "Or what?" As they continued to argue, Imani and Dominic were still fighting off robots. "Where the others?" Dominic asked. "I don't know." Imani said. As they finished fighting off the robots, they saw that Jeffrey and Darrell were in an all-out fist brawl. "Are you serious?" Imani asked. Dominic aggressively walked towards the brawl between them and telekinetically separated them using his force fields. "What they hell is y'all damn problem?!" he yelled. "This man started it!" Darrell yelled. "And I told you it was an accident!" Jeffrey responded. They started yelling across from each other and Dominic started getting frustrated. "SHUT UP!" Dominic screamed. As soon as he screamed that, Times Square turned into the normal Training Complex. Dominic ceased his two force fields from Darrell and Jeffrey and stormed out of the Training Complex. "This is bullshit." Darrell said. After that, he started walking out of the complex. "Darrell, wait!" Imani said. He was already out of the complex. Imani turned around to Jeffrey and asked, "What the hell happened?" "I told him it was an accident," Jeffrey said. "I tried to throw a fireball at one of the robots and the robot dodged it and it hit Darrell." "I'm sure he knows it was an accident." "Well he didn't." Jeffrey started looking around and asked, "You know Imani, what if Darrell was right?" "About what?" "About us being heroes. With everything he said. We don't know what being a superhero is about." "You know how Darrell is Jeff," Imani said. "He's been negative ever since we got here. Something's going on with him." "But do you think we're really up for this?" "I don't know. But I had a moment in that session. After saving those first set of civilians, I thought back to what Dominic told me when I first met him. He made me realize that anyone can be a hero. You just got to put your mind to it. So, don't let Darrell get to your head alright?" "I got you." "Good, let me know if you need anything. I'm going to the lab."

Dominic was in the kitchen drinking a glass of water with a disappointed look on his face. "I should've known something was gonna go wrong." He sat his glass down and sat in a chair. He put his hands over his face and started crying. "I knew I wasn't cut out for something like this. I should've told Uncle Nick no and remained an Avenger. Things were a little bit easier there." He sat there for a couple minutes staring at his glass. "Dominic, it appears you have a guest at your doorstep." CT said. "Who?" Dominic asked. "One of the Avengers." Dominic quickly wiped his tears away and said, "Let him or her in please." "Yes sir." Dominic heard the guest walk in and he said, "In the kitchen." Suddenly, T'Challa walked in with much delight to Dominic. "T'Challa." Dominic said excitedly. "Hello Dominic." T'Challa said. They walked up to each other and gave each other a hug. "How are you man?" Dominic asked. "I'm doing well," T'Challa responded. "How are you my brother?" "I'm… "I'm…" "What's wrong?" Dominic mood changed from happy to disappointment with him thinking about the training session he just had with his team. "I just had this training session with everyone," Dominic said. "It was our very first one. And it just went wrong." "Well what happened?" "This fight between Jeff and Darrell just happened out of nowhere and I tried to stop it. But I just got so frustrated with them, so I just abruptly ended the session and I stormed out. Plus, we couldn't complete the mission, so I'm highly pissed about that." "Hey, it's you guys' first session together. Nothing is gonna go perfect. Of course, you're gonna have some mistakes. And when it happens, you just gotta move on from it." "And it's not just that," Dominic said while he took a seat. "I've been asking myself this since the first day I got here. I ask myself, 'Did I make the right decision?' Cause this is a huge step I ain't plan on taking. I ain't plan on becoming a leader of a superhero team. I look at you, Steve, Carol, Sam, and the others and I know I can't be as great as y'all. Especially a person and hero like you. I mean you are the leader of the Avengers and the king of Wakanda. I mean is this right for me? T'Challa, maybe I think I should go back to the Avengers." "Let's not be so quick to give up." T'Challa said. He took a seat next to Dominic and said, "Now look. I know you. I know how you are as a person. I know how you are as a hero. And to me, I think you being a leader was a great decision. I've seen you grow through the years as my teammate. I saw from the start that you had great leadership qualities. And you still do. You just don't realize it yet. And who said you had to be a leader exactly like the rest of us. You be your own leader. Make your own rules." T'Challa put his hand on Dominic's shoulder and said, "Not everything is gonna go perfect your first go 'round. You're gonna have a few bumps here and there but that's just how it goes. Everyone mistakes. I make mistakes and yes there are gonna be some consequences you're gonna have to face. But that's what being a leader is about. Nobody is ever a perfect leader. Don't beat yourself up kid." "Still calling me a kid after all these years huh," Dominic asked while laughing. "But you're right." "I know I am." "Dang, you sound just like my uncle." They both laughed. "Hey look," T'Challa said. "Know that you aren't alone. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I know that when becoming a leader, you think that you need to have all the answers. Sometimes you don't. And that's why you have a team to help you out. Never forget you always got the Avengers to count on for anything. But most importantly, you got your team. Your team is always gonna be there for you no matter what." "Thanks, T'Challa." Dominic said. They both gave each other a hug and T'Challa said, "I got something for you and your team." They both walked to the front door and T'Challa gave him a gift wrapped up. "What is this?" Dominic asked. "Open it." T'Challa responded. Dominic opened the gift and was shocked to see that T'Challa gave him and his team vibranium. "T'Challa," Dominic said. "You're giving me this? You just don't give this to anyone." "I know. Just think about what you can do with it. Let me know if you need more or anything else. See ya Dom." T'Challa walked out and Dominic stared at the vibranium. "Well let's see what I can do with this."

Imani, who changed into a t-shirt and shorts, was down in the lab finishing her little project she came up with. Then, Dominic walks in with the vibranium in his hand. Imani turns around and says, "Hey." "I got a surprise for you." Dominic said. He handed her the vibranium and her eyes lit up with excitement. "Is this what I think it is?" she asked. "Vibranium. At your service." he responded. "How… How did you get this?" "Now you know I know people Imani." "I know but still." "I still have a little vibranium left in my room. Use this one to weave into our suits." "That's a good idea. That will make our suits nearly invincible." "Maybe." Dominic laughs. "I know it doesn't make you totally invincible, but it has its advantages." "I'll get right on this." Imani said. "Thanks." As Dominic was beginning to walk out, Imani ran up to him and asked, "Are you okay? You know from earlier?" Dominic let out a sigh and said, "Yeah. I'm a lot better from earlier. I just needed to breathe if you know what I mean." "Yeah yeah I get it. Just thought you might needed someone to talk to." "Oh no, I'm all good now. I kinda talked with someone. Not that I'm trying to make you feel bad or anything, it's just…" "Was it one of the Avengers?" Dominic sighed and said, "Yeah." "Hey, I'm not mad at you. I know they're family to you and they mean a lot. And it may not seem like it now, but we got your back too. Even through all the mess ups and failures. We're human. So, don't beat yourself up for what happened back there. Don't give up on yourself. I'm not giving up on you either." "T'Challa was telling me the same thing." "That's who you were talking too huh?" "Yeah." "And that's how you got the vibranium?" "Right as you are, Imani." Dominic said with a smile. They both smiled at each other and Imani walked up to him and gave him hug. Confused, Dominic asked her, "What was that for?" "I had a moment during the training session," Imani said. "Remember when we first talked? At Harvard?" "Yeah of course." "After I saved those civilians, I thought about what you said to me. About changing lives and everything. And, I never thought I could be doing something like that. I know it wasn't real but still. It just felt… good you know? Like, this isn't something I thought about doing but I think this might be something I want to do." "I'm glad you think that. I already know there's a great hero inside you." Dominic smiled at her and walked out the lab.


	13. Chapter 13

A few hours later, everybody in the mansion was minding their own business. Dominic was in the Core Room watching footage from their training session earlier that day. Imani was still in the lab still finishing up on everybody's suit. Darrell was in his room laid out on his bed staring at the ceiling. But Jeffrey was outside setting up a campfire for everybody. He had some firewood set up along with some chairs around it. He got out a table and set out some graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate bars. "Cool, I think that's everything," he said to himself. "I wonder if CT is out here." He looked around and yelled out, "CT!" "Yes Mr. Morris?" CT responded. "Would you mind calling the others to the backyard for me please?" "Absolutely." Dominic was writing notes from the footage and CT interrupted him. "Mr. Middleton?" CT said. "What's good CT?" Dominic responded. "Jeffrey wants to meet you and the others in the backyard." "Okay, I'll be over in a minute." As soon as Imani was finished designing the suits, CT called her up. "Ms. Kelly, Jeffrey would like to meet up with you and the others in the backyard." "Coming." Imani said. Darrell was still laying in his bed as if he was about to fall asleep. "Hi Mr. Robinson," CT said. "I hope I'm not interrupting but Jeffrey would like to meet you and the others in the backyard." "Fine." Darrell said. Imani was the first one to arrive in the backyard and she looked at the set-up Jeffrey made and asked, "What's all this?" "A little something." Jeffrey responded. Darrell and Dominic arrived intrigued at the set-up Jeffrey did. "Is this a campfire?" Dominic said. "Where's the fire?" Darrell asked. Jeffrey pointed his finger to the firewood and a stream of fire came out of his finger. As he ignited the fire, he said, "There. Now it's a campfire." He gave everyone a marshmallow on a stick and said, "Come on. I wanna talk to y'all." Jeffrey sat down and grabbed his chocolate and his graham crackers. He looked at the rest of them and said, "Well come on." The three looked at each other and grabbed graham crackers and chocolate and sat down around the campfire. They all put their marshmallows inside the fire. "I know it's been a rough day for all of us today," Jeffrey said. "And I think we shouldn't beat ourselves up for it. Especially you Dom. I know you feel like there's a lot of pressure. I just wanted to say don't feel that way man. I'm here… I mean… we're all here for you. I just wanted to make sure you're not overwhelmed with all that you have on your plate right now." "I appreciate that Jeff." Dominic said while taking a bite of his s'mores. "And Darrell, I just wanted to apologize from earlier." Jeffrey said. "Don't," Darrell said. "You have no reason to. It was my fault for taking it overboard and everything. And I'm sorry Jeffrey." "It's all good over here." Jeffrey said. Darrell got up from his chair and said, "Matter fact, I apologize to all of y'all." He looked over at Dominic and said, "You especially." He looked away from Dominic and started looking at the ground. "I apologize for the way I acted ever since I got here. For being distant. For being rude and disrespectful. For… everything." He took a pause and Imani asked, "Are you okay?" Still looking at the ground, he didn't respond for a few seconds. "It's just that… I've never had people care about me this much. I'm so used to being a loner. Ever since I was kid, I've been a loner. Running away from my parents, jumping from foster to foster home, and so much more." Everybody had a somber look on their face after what Darrell said to them. "I'm sorry to damper the mood." Darrell said. "No, no, no," Dominic said. "It's alright to open up. Especially to people that really care about you. That's what becoming a team is about from what I learned." "Well, I wanna open up about something." Jeffrey said taking a bite of his s'mores. "Be our guest." Imani said. "In high school, I was at a really low point in my life," Jeffrey said. "I almost flunked out of high school because of a group of people I hung out with. I was skipping all of my classes, making horrible grades, and even doing drugs. Crack. I became such a crack addict during that time. Like you couldn't get me away from it. Every time someone sees me, I was doing crack. My parents didn't know for awhile until one day they found crack pipes in my room. When they found out, I was kicked out of my home. My parents who loved me so much felt like they didn't love me anymore. It didn't affect me at first but after a couple weeks, it hit me. I finally saw the wrong that I was doing. Which is why I signed up to be in the armed forces. I wanted to change my life around for the better. I knew that it was gonna be hard to get in due to my drug addiction, but I was determined to get my life straight. So, I begged and begged them to let me in. Even though it would potentially disqualify me from joining. But they let me in. Under some conditions of course. Especially going to rehab. Rehab helped me a whole lot. It got me back in school, moved back in with my parents, and graduate. After that, I was in the Air Force. And it was one of my greatest accomplishments. Serving for your country was one of the greatest feelings ever. But the most satisfying feeling was when I became clean of drugs. And today marks 10 years of being drug free." The rest of them smiled at Jeffrey and Dominic said, "Congratulations Jeffrey. I salute you on that sir." "So proud of you. I know your parents are proud." Imani said. "And thank you for serving our country Captain." "I appreciate you guys," Jeffrey said. "And I'm glad you guys are here with me to celebrate this accomplishment." "Imani, you got something you wanna tell us?" Darrell asked. "Um, wow spotlights on me huh?" Imani asked. "Um well… When I was younger, my mom lost her job. She was mostly the breadwinner in our family meaning my dad was a stay at home dad. So, with her losing her job, we became homeless for a while. I think I was about maybe 10 or 11 years old when that happened. Of course, it took a toll on me. But then my mom got a new job. But that job brought her some trouble in her life. Well, all of our lives." "What happened?" Jeffrey asked. "My mom started working for a criminal organization. It got her back on her feet and the family back to a stable place but she knew what the organization was about but she was doing her best to try and keep it away from my dad and I so we wouldn't have to worry. But eventually trouble did catch back up with her. She was tried for a crime that she didn't commit and was sentenced to a few years in prison. She had to take the fall for it. My dad and I knew she was just doing her best to keep us out of trouble and everything. I knew she was doing it cause she loved us. When she was in jail, my dad and I had to get jobs so we can keep ourselves afloat. And then that's how I got to science. Fast forward a few years later after high school, I was offered a full ride to Harvard and got accepted into an organization that valued my smarts. And then my mom was released from jail during that time too because of a lawyer my dad hired. Somebody by the name of Murdock I believe. But that's my end of the story. Just thought I end it on a good note, you know?" "Wow." Jeffrey said. "How are you and your parents now?" "Oh, we're perfectly fine," Imani responded. "They're just now living a quiet life and our relationship is stronger than ever before." The boys smiled at Imani and Darrell looked at Dominic and said, "Well, Dominic. It's your turn." "Yeah, with all your years in the superhero business, you gotta have something." Imani said. "Okay okay." Dominic said. He took a huge sigh and said, "I was 21. In my second or third year as an Avenger. Things were going well for me. We had this one mission involving A.I.M. Advanced Idea Mechanics. This mission was the very first time I went solo. All my mission included was investigating their headquarters. While investigating, I found something very important that the Avengers needed to know about. But somehow, one of the guards heard me and I was ambushed by A.I.M. guards. Next thing I know, I wake up in a cell with an electric collar around my neck and handcuffs that covered my entire hands. I realized I was captured. M.O.D.O.K., the leader at the time, kept me locked up in that cage for three days. I was abused. Physically and emotionally. Being beat up by their advanced weaponry and having no medical attention. Screaming their hatred towards me. I was fed only once a day. And it was barely nothing. I almost gave up on life at the point. The Avengers eventually saved me. But even that couldn't stop the trauma. I remember Captain America trying to get me to talk but I just couldn't. I laid there in the Quinjet. Shaking and crying. Couldn't get the trauma out of my head. It eventually stayed with me for awhile. I'd never left my room for awhile. Cap was always checking on me. Of course, the others did but he did most. Even skipping out on a couple of missions just to be by my side. It wasn't until he gave me this long talk that eventually got me back in action. Basically, he made me feel like a hero again." "Dom, I'm so sorry that happened to you." Jeffrey said. "How are you holding up?" Imani asked. "I'm okay now," Dominic said. "It happened so long ago that I'm not fazed by it anymore." All four of them looked at each other for quite awhile. "Well, instead of just sitting here feeling sad and telling sob stories, let's get lit." Jeffrey said. "Well, since you said so." Dominic said. He looked at the kitchen window and used his powers to open the window. He telekinetically grabbed a few wine bottles and glasses and bought it over to the campfire. "Hold on." Imani said. She got out her phone and started playing trap music. "Now we really bout to get lit." Darrell said. The music was blasting in their backyard with them drinking wine and dancing the night away.


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning, everybody in the mansion was passed out from being drunk last night. Jeffrey was the only one who was passed out outside while everybody else was inside. Darrell was passed out in the living room on a couch. Dominic was in his room passed out on his bed. And Imani was passed out laying out on the floor in the kitchen. She was the first one to wake up. As she was waking up, she looked around trying to figure out where she was. "Oh my God." she said groaning. She got up from the floor and saw four wine bottles on the kitchen counter. "We are terrible." she said. She walked to the counter slowly and got the wine bottles and threw them away. She got out a loaf of bread and started eating the bread. Jeffrey walked in and asked, "You wanna save some of that bread for me?" Imani threw the bread to loaf of bread to Jeffrey with him catching it. He took out a slice and he heated it up making it into toast. As he took a bite, Imani asked him, "What the hell did we get into last night?" "Who knows," Jeffrey responded. "I just know there was wine, music, and dancing." "A lot of wine at that. I just threw away about 4 bottles." "Yeah, I just threw away 3 of them outside." "Did we really go through 7 bottles of wine?!" They both looked at each other and said, "Wow." "What time is it first of all?" Jeffrey asked. Darrell walked in and said, "Past 11am." He went to the cabinet to get a glass and filled it up with water. "I cannot remember the last time I got a hangover like this." he said putting his hand over his forehead. "I think this is the first time I ever got hungover." Jeffrey said. "Deadass?" Darrell asked. "Yeah." Jeffrey asked. Imani laughed and asked, "So when you served, y'all never had like any wild parties or anything?" "We did. I just ain't drink much." Dominic was the last to wake up out of the four. He got out of his bed and walked to his mirror. He looked at himself and said, "You look horrible." His cell phone started ringing. He grabbed it and saw it was his uncle that was calling. "Hello?" he answered. "Hey Dominic," Nick said. "I need you and the others to come to the Helicarrier." "Why, what's wrong?" "I can't talk about it over the phone. But I need you guys here in half an hour." "Yeah, no problem. Bye." He hung up the phone up and took a big breath and sighed. The others were still in the kitchen talking about what happened with them last night and eating toast. All of them were laughing and Jeffrey said, "I can't believe we got that drunk last night." "But it was a great time though." Imani said. Dominic came inside the kitchen and said, "Sorry to cut this short but we gotta go the Helicarrier now." "S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier?" Darrell asked. "Yeah. My uncle said it was urgent." "Did he tell you what was going on?" Jeffrey asked. "No and that was strange. He usually would tell me over the phone, but it must be big." "How long do we have?" Imani asked. "He wants us there in half an hour. So shower. Put on some fresh clothes. And we'll be on our way." All of them left the kitchen to get ready to meet with Nick Fury.

All of them were in their jet with Jeffrey piloting it. "Alright guys," Jeffrey said. "Prepare for takeoff." As Jeffrey was firing up the jet, the rest of them were buckling up in their seats. "These seats are extremely comfortable." Imani said. "Yeah I ain't know they were gonna make it this comfortable." Dominic said. "Ready for takeoff." Jeffrey said. Suddenly, the door at the end of the runway started opening. The jet then started accelerating to the door. As the door finished opening, the jet started coming out of the hangar. As soon as the jet reached the sky, they immediately took off and headed to the Helicarrier. 20 minutes later they arrived at the Helicarrier. "Land on that runway Jeff." Dominic said. Jeffrey did as he said and they landed on the runway. The S.H.I.E.L.D personnel looked confused as to who would be in the jet. Dominic was the first one to walk out of the jet and one of the agents walked up to him and said, "Good afternoon Mr. Middleton." "Good morning. Do you know where my uncle is?" "In the hangar of the Helicarrier. Is he expecting you?" "Yes. And a few others." "Wow he usually tells us when you're coming over." "He didn't tell y'all up here? Hmm. Come on y'all let's go." The rest of them walked out of the jet and went down to the bridge. They found Nick Fury and Dominic said, "Uncle Nick." Fury turned around looking surprised that he saw Dominic and the others. Nick walked up to them and said, "Never thought I would see all four of you together." He looked at Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell and shook their hands. "Nick Fury. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D." "Great to meet you Director Fury," Darrell said. "Heard many stories of you." Fury laughed and asked, "What's the reason you guys are here?" "Um, you called me." Dominic said. "When?" Fury said. "About an hour ago. You said you had something for us that you couldn't talk about over the phone." Fury and Dominic walked downstairs to a corner leaving the rest of the three confused. "Dominic, I never called you." Fury said. "Well, my phone says otherwise." Dominic said. "What would I call you about? We ain't had nothing happen to us." "You tell me." They continued arguing while the others followed them and watched trying to figure out what was going on. "Anybody know what's going on with them?" Jeffrey asked. "I could try to use my telepathy, but I know Dominic would notice." Darrell said. Dominic and Fury continued arguing and Fury said, "Wait a minute." They both stopped arguing and Fury took a few seconds to think to himself. His eyes got big and he said, "Oh shit." He started running to the bridge. "What the hell?" Dominic said. He started running behind him and with Imani, Darrell, and Jeffrey running behind Dominic. Suddenly, an explosion happened right in front of them. The explosion sent them flying back downstairs and they all landed on top of each other. Darrell started coughing and asked, "Dominic, what the hell is going?" "Do it look I know?" he responded while trying to get up. As they all got up, they heard gunshots and a couple more explosions above them. "Let's go." Fury said. They all ran to the bridge of the ship and saw that an army of Christopher's henchmen in their robotic suits have invaded and hijacked the Helicarrier. "Oh no." Fury said. One of the henchmen came crashing in behind the five. He was about to attack them, but Dominic put up his force field to block the attacks from the henchmen. As soon as he stopped attacking, Dominic ceased his force field and attacked him hand to hand, beating him in under five seconds. "How many are on this ship?" Dominic asked. "I don't know," Fury said. "But I know more are coming." More explosions started happening below them. "Shit!" Jeffrey yelled. "Look here's the plan," Dominic said. "Imani, go back down to where we were before and help the agents down there." "Got it." Imani said as she was running off turning into her diamond form. "Jeff and Darrell, take it outside. I need you stop as many of these people from coming inside. The agents out there need help the most." The duo ran off and Dominic turned to his uncle and said, "We'll handle things in here." Fury got out his two guns and said, "Then let's get to it then."

Dominic made a force field and turned it into a sword. More of Christopher's henchmen came crashing into the Helicarrier. Dominic starts running to the henchmen and starts attacking them one by one. He slashes his sword across the henchmen's suits and their suits started malfunctioning. They tried attacking Dominic, but the henchmen were helpless without their suits. Dominic used a powerful telepathic attack and knocked out all the henchmen that attacked him. Fury was finding weak points on the henchmen's and shot at those weak points. He was running out of bullets and didn't have any more on him. Dominic saw him running out of ammo and he made 2 more guns out of his force fields. "Hey!" Dominic yelled. Fury turned around and Dominic threw the guns to Fury. He started running and jumped up in the air and caught the guns in the air and started attacking the henchmen again. Imani was getting everyone to safe place while attacking at the henchmen at the same time. "Stay here." Imani said. She ran to a henchman and jumped on him and pummeled him to the ground, so he won't get up. After that she saw a henchman getting ready to shoot at a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Imani started running over there and when the henchman started shooting, Imani got there just in time to protect the agent from getting hurt. The bullets started deflecting from Imani's body back to the henchman's suit with the suit taking damage. As soon as the henchman was done shooting, Imani gave one powerful uppercut sending the henchman crashing through the ceiling and knocking him out as soon as he landed. Imani helped the agent up and asked, "Are you alright?" "Yes, thank you." the agent said. Jeffrey and Darrell were doing their best to stop the henchmen from going inside the Helicarrier. Jeffrey tried to create a wall of fire in front of him to block them from getting but it was no use. He started throwing fireballs and that slowed them down a bit and taking a little bit of damage. Darrell saw Jeffrey was having trouble, so he started telekinetically pushing them back. The henchmen took notice and turned and looked at Darrell. They started attacking Darrell, but Darrell ran for cover. Jeffrey then created a flamethrower using his hands and aimed at the henchmen. The henchmen's suits started overheating and they couldn't use their suits anymore. Jeffrey and Darrell started attacking them hand by hand. After that, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents came out and provided backup for Jeffrey and Darrell. Darrell looked up in the sky and saw another army of Christopher's henchmen heading their way. Some of the henchmen started attacking from the sky and an agent yelled, "Take cover!" Everybody did as he said and ran for cover. The henchmen landed on the Helicarrier and started attacking everybody on the ship. Darrell, Jeffrey, and all the agents attacked back to stop them from getting in. One henchman pummeled on the ground and made his way through the bridge of the Helicarrier. As he did that, Fury and Dominic turned around and got in position to attack him. The henchman pressed a button on the suit and the suit began to open up. The henchman turned out to be Christopher Chambers himself. "Surprised to see me here aren't you?" he asked. Christopher turned and looked at Dominic and said, "All I want is you." He walked up to Dominic, but Fury got in the way to protect Dominic. "Don't you even dare." Fury said. He started attacking Christopher and they were both in a hand to hand combat. Dominic went in to help Fury, but a few henchmen got in Dominic's way and started attacking him. Fury and Christopher were still battling each other. But then Christopher got out a knife and stabbed Fury in the stomach. "Ahh!" Fury yelled. He fell to the ground and started bleeding out. Dominic saw Fury on the ground and he yelled, "UNCLE NICK!" Dominic started running over to his uncle, but henchman came out of nowhere and knocked him out. Some of the agents that weren't attacking henchmen ran over to Fury's side to help him. Christopher got back into his suit and started walking to Fury's private quarters. The agents tried to stop him, but it was no use as he used one attack and knocked all of them out. Imani came out from where she was and saw where Christopher was walking to. Imani started running towards him. But Christopher turned around just in time and he grabbed her and threw her across the room and knocked her out turning back into her normal form. Jeffrey and Darrell were still outside with the agents on the runway stopping the other henchmen from getting inside. One of the agent's stopped attacking because he was receiving a message on his communicator. "Agent Rivers!" the agent over the communicator said. "We need people down here to stop Chambers. He's heading to Fury's quarters!" "Roger that!" Agent Rivers said. Agent Rivers ran to Jeffrey and Darrell and told them, "I need you two to go down to Fury's quarters. Chambers is heading down to Fury's quarters and I need you two to stop him." "Are you guys gonna be okay up here?" Darrell asked. "We'll be fine, head down there fast!" The duo ran after Chambers. As they got to the bridge, they stopped running and saw Dominic and Imani knocked out. "Oh my God," Darrell said. "I'll go after Chambers. Try to get them up." "Are you sure?" Jeffrey asked. "Yeah, I am." Darrell ran off after Chambers and Jeffrey first ran up to Dominic. "Dominic man wake up." Jeffrey said. He started shaking his body and nothing worked. Jeffrey placed his hand on his face and heated to the point where he woke up. Dominic screamed in pain as he woke up and started looking around. He saw Jeffrey and he asked, "What's going on? Where's Uncle Nick?" "Nick?" Jeffrey asked. He started looking around and saw him and the other agents around him. "Over there." Jeffrey said. Dominic ran over to his uncle's side and asked the agents, "Where's the medical team?" "They're trapped in the labs." One of the agents said. Jeffrey did the same thing he did to Dominic to Imani to wake her up and it worked. She saw Dominic, Fury, and the agents and she asked, "What's going on?" Jeffrey and Imani ran to where they were and Dominic said, "I need one of the agents to take Imani and Jeff to the labs and rescue the med team and get them here quickly." "Will do, Stealth," an agent said. "Follow me guys." The two did as he said and followed the agent to rescue the med team. Dominic stayed behind with his uncle to make sure nothing happens. Fury started groaning in pain and Dominic said, "It's gonna be okay. Stay with me." "Where's Chambers?" Fury asked. "I don't know. I'm staying here to make sure nothing happens." "Go get Chambers. I'll be fine." "I ain't leaving you here like this." "It's ok. Go!" "I said ain't going!" "Dominic, go find his ass! I will be fine!" Dominic took a sigh and asked, "Where's he headed?" "To Fury's quarters." an agent responded. "Shit." Dominic said. He got up and started running to after Chambers.

Chambers made it to Fury's quarters and started looking around. He got out of his robotic suit and walked around his quarters. He saw a picture of Dominic on Fury's desk and smashed it. Christopher saw his office space and got on his computer. As he snooped around on his computer, he saw where he kept his top-secret files. "Just exactly what I needed." Christopher said. He got out a flash drive and started downloading all of the files to the flash drive. Darrell then walked in and said, "You're not gonna get away with this." Christopher saw Darrell and started laughing. He took out his flash drive and put it in his pocket. "You must be Darrell," Christopher said. "Former investigator for the NYPD. Inhuman. Telekinesis and telepathy." He got up and walked up to Darrell. "And a murderer." Darrell eyes got big and he started getting angry. "You don't know nothing about me." Darrell said. "Oh I know everything about you. Probably more than you know more about yourself. And I know everything about your team as well. Especially, your so called leader." Christopher started walking back to his suit and Darrell was stuck in his tracks surprised by what Christopher knows about him. "You're not a hero. And you're not capable of being one. You're better off just being the monster you are. Or even dead." Christopher got back in his suit and walked out. Darrell, still shocked by what he said to him, was still standing in that same spot shaking. "Don't listen to him," he said to himself. "Shake it off." Christopher walked into the control room of the Helicarrier and saw the agents inside the room getting ready to attack him. Christopher then pressed a button on his suit and a powerful blast busted from his suit knocking out all the agents in the control room. Christopher was walking up to the main controls of the Helicarrier after knocking out all the agents. Darrell appeared in the control room and said, "What you said about me was wrong." Christopher stopped walking and turned around looking at Darrell. "Am I?" he asked He got out a blaster and he shot at Darrell, but he dodged it. Christopher then kept shooting at him, but Darrell ran until he took cover. Christopher stopped and started typing in stuff into the main controls. Darrell got up from cover and started attacking him. Darrell pushed Christopher back telekinetically to get him away from the control panel. Christopher again got out his blaster and shot at Darrell. Darrell deflected the blast using his telekinesis, but the blast went straight to the control panel. "NO!" Darrell screamed. "Looks like you just made things easier for me." Christopher said.

All throughout the Helicarrier, lights started flickering. Everybody in the Helicarrier started looking around their surroundings, confused on what was going on with the lights. "See if you can stop me now." Christopher said. He got on his communicator and said, "All right boys, it's time to get off this thing." He blasted a hole through the ceiling and him and his henchmen made their way out of the Helicarrier. In the infirmary, Imani and Jeffrey were looking around and Imani asked, "What's happening?" Fury, still in a bit of pain, was being treated for his wound and he told his agents to stop what they were doing. "It can't be." Fury said. Dominic was still running around looking for Christopher and Darrell. Suddenly, the lights went off. And then all of the power in the Helicarrier went off. Dominic stopped running. "Oh God." The Helicarrier then started to fall from the sky. As it was falling, everybody inside started floating having no control because of the gravity. The agents that were left on the runway were trying to hold on something to keep them from falling but it didn't work as they fell off the runway falling from the sky. Dominic created a force field around his body and started to fly to the runway. He got to the runway and said, "God, I hope this works." He put a force field around the entire Helicarrier to telekinetically stop it from falling. As he put the force field around the Helicarrier, it seemed to slow down from falling but Dominic could not stop it completely. Everybody inside the Helicarrier fell back to the ground and caught gravity again. Fury saw out the window that Dominic was trying to stop the Helicarrier from crashing and he said. "He's gonna kill himself." Dominic's nose started bleeding non-stop and he was getting exhausted every second he kept holding the Helicarrier afloat. "I can't give up. I have to stop it." He started grunting to see if it would help some but it was no use. "COME ON!" he screamed. But then Dominic slowly started falling to the ground. Then he was on his knees struggling to keep the Helicarrier afloat but it was still falling from the sky. But then he gave up and passed out with his nose still bleeding. The force field ceased and the Helicarrier started falling at a faster rate. Everybody inside started floating again having no control of gravity. Back on the runway, Dominic was still passed out and his body fell off the runway. As his body falling from the sky, a portal below him opened up and he fell through the portal. The portal took him back inside the Helicarrier's infirmary with Fury, Imani, Jeffrey, and the agents where he could be safe with everyone. On the runway, another portal opened up. This time, Doctor Strange came out the portal. He looked around him and he starts performing one of his spells. As he started performing his spell, he floated in the sky and started doing hand movements. Then the Helicarrier immediately stopped falling and everyone inside fell back on the ground. In the infirmary, Dominic was still knocked out. Fury ran to his side. He tried everything to wake him up but nothing was working. Jeffrey then ran over to Dominic's side and he did what he did earlier but it wasn't working either. Doctor Strange was still performing his spell. The Helicarrier started hovering back into the sky. And then the power finally came back on. The agents that were left on the runway were still falling from the sky. Doctor Strange telekinetically caught them using his magic and safely put them on the runway. He then teleported to where Dominic was and as he got there, everybody was shocked to see Doctor Strange there. "Is everyone alright?" he asked. "Yeah." one of the agents responded. Doctor Strange pointed his finger as Dominic and used his magic to wake him up. As he did that, Dominic slowly opened his eyes. "What happened?" Dominic said. "You almost died out there." Fury said. "Yeah, we thought we lost you for a minute." Jeffrey said. Dominic looked at Doctor Strange and said, "Thanks Stephen." "Anytime Dominic." "Are you alright?" he asked Fury. "Yeah, I'll be fine." he responded. They all got up from the ground and Dominic looked around and saw Imani and Jeffrey but not Darrell. "Where's Darrell?" Dominic asked. "He went after that guy but I don't know what happened after that." an agent said. "Oh no." Imani said. Her, Jeffrey, and Dominic looked at each other and ran off to find Darrell. As they were running, Dominic said, "Last time I checked, he was heading to my uncle's quarters." A minute later, they arrived and they couldn't find Darrell or Christopher. "They're not here." Jeffrey said. They all ran back to the bridge of the Helicarrier. They stopped and saw a hole in the floor. "Where did this come from?" Imani asked. "What happened with Christopher?" Dominic asked. "He escaped," an agent said walking up to the three of them. "Along with his henchmen." "Did they take anything?" Dominic asked. "I don't think so. He didn't have anything with him." Dominic sighed and asked, "Have you seen Darrell?" Imani asked. "I haven't." Fury and Doctor Strange then walked in with bandages around Fury's wound. Dominic walked up to his uncle and said, "You need to lay low." "I'm fine Dominic," Fury said. "Where did Darrell go?" All of a sudden, everybody looked out the window and saw the jet that Dominic, Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell flew in was leaving the site. "Darrell is in there," Dominic said. "But where is he going?" "Y'all go." Fury said. Dominic looked at his uncle and said, "You sure? We can stay and clean up this mess." "Don't worry about that," Doctor Strange said. "I got it." "Something might be up with Darrell," Fury said. "Go see what's up with him." "How we gonna get somewhere without the jet?" Jeffrey asked. "Meet me on the runway." Dominic said. Jeffrey and Imani left to go to the runway but Dominic stayed behind. He walked up to his uncle and said, "I'm sorry 'bout earlier. I should've just listened to you at first." "It's alright," he said. "I know you were worried about me." "But if I didn't stay, Chambers wouldn't have escaped. I know all this shit wouldn't have happened if I didn't leave." Fury put his hand over Dominic's shoulder and said, "You can't beat yourself up for this. You were just trying to make sure I was fine and that's okay. Really. We all make mistakes, remember? Hell, even I do sometimes. But you can't keep doing this to yourself. Go find Darrell. We'll be fine over here. Trust me." Dominic nodded his head and ran to Jeffrey and Imani. "Everything okay?" Imani asked. "Yeah I'm fine." Dominic said. He put a force field around the three of them and they all flew away from the Helicarrier. "I think he might be going to the house." Jeffrey asked. "Then I guess that's where we are going." Dominic said.


	15. Chapter 15

All three of them arrived back to their home and landed in their jet hangar. They got out the jet and went inside their home by taking the elevator to the first floor of their home. They arrived in the sunroom and started looking for Darrell. "Darrell!" Dominic shouted. They all split up looking for him. Imani was looking in their library while Jeffrey searched the living and dining room. Dominic went upstairs and walked to Darrell's room. As soon as he got Darrell's room, the door immediately slammed shut. "Darrell, open up." Dominic said. He got no answer. Dominic knocked on the door and said, "Darrell, please let me in." Still no answer. Dominic tried opening the door but the door still slammed shut by Darrell's telekinesis. "Don't make me do this." Dominic started using his powers to open the door and he was struggling to get it open for a few seconds but he finally got it open. Darrell stood there with a blank expression on his face. "You're stronger than I thought you were." Dominic said. Dominic started looking around Darrell's room and saw that he was packing up all of his stuff. "What are you doing?" Dominic asked. "What does it look like?" Darrell responded. He continued packing and Dominic tried to stop him by grabbing his arm but Darrell got out of his reach quickly. Dominic paused for a minute and asked, "What did Chambers say to you?" Darrell stopped for a second and continued packing. "Darrell, what did he say to you?" Dominic asked again. "None of your business." Darrell responded. "I ain't gonna ask you again." "Then don't." Darrell continued to pack but Dominic telekinetically stopped him in his tracks by strapping his feet down with his force fields. "I don't wanna do this." Dominic said. He started to put his fingers on Darrell's head but he grabbed his fingers and said, "You wanna know what he said about me?" Darrell asked. "What did he say to you Darrell?" Dominic asked. "Let me out of these straps." Dominic sighed and let Darrell free. "The truth." Darrell said. Darrell continued packing his things and Dominic said, "And the truth appeared to be what?" Darrell stopped packing and said, "Everything that I said to you before I got here." Dominic walked up to Darrell and said, "Don't listen to that man. He's just trying to get in your head." "Do you think you know me?" Darrell asked. "No, honestly. Do you really know me?" "Darrell…" "You don't know what the hell I've been through my entire life." "You right I don't." "I knew my past was gonna catch up to me." "And you're just gonna let that get to you?" "You damn right I am." Dominic paused and said, "You can't let these types of things stop you. Trust me I know." "No you don't know Dominic," Darrell yelled. "I told you this before and I'm gonna tell you again. I'm a monster." Jeffrey and Imani walked inside Darrell's room to see what was going on. "Darrell, you need to stop telling yourself that. Whatever you did on the Helicarrier, it was a mistake. We all make mistakes. I made mistakes and I'm gonna continue making mistakes no matter what. You can't let your past define who you are." "THEN TELL THAT TO MY DEAD TWIN BROTHER!" Darrell screamed. "Tell that to my dead twin brother." Dominic, Imani, and Jeffrey were left speechless. Darrell then starting sobbing. "You wanna know why I'm a monster?" Darrell asked. "I was seven years old. Harlem. At home. Playing in the backyard with my twin brother. Playing in the sand just having the time of our lives. Then we both started playing tag. Running around the backyard chasing each other around. My twin tagged me first. So I decided to go after him. I couldn't catch him cause he was a lot faster than me. As I was running to him, I reached my arm out. Next thing you know, he started floating off the ground. And boom. Next thing you know he's flying to a tree. Head first." Imani so shocked that she immediately started to cry. "As soon as he hit that tree, I heard his skull crack. I did nothing but stood there puzzled by what happened. I ran to his body to see if he was okay. But he wasn't. I felt him dying in my arms." Jeffrey then started crying himself. "I cried. Screamed. It was all my fault. My parents heard my scream. They came running as soon as they heard me screaming, they came running outside. They saw my twin in my arms. Dead. They started breaking down crying. All they could say was 'Darren! Darren!' I couldn't do nothing. I just sat their and cried over my twin's dead body. All I could was 'I didn't mean to. I'm sorry.' That all I could say. I think my parents knew what I could do. Which is why they weren't so upset with me. They told me it was okay but it wasn't. I couldn't take the guilt anymore. So you know what I did? I ran away. And things have not been good since. Going from foster home to foster home because I was a difficult child. Being homeless numerous times." Darrell still had tears coming down his face and turned and faced Dominic and said, "So there you have it. Not only do I have not one person's blood on my hands but I have two. And that happened to be my own twin's blood. And I have to carry that with me. Everyday. Everyday until I die. Do you have any? And I mean any idea what that feels like. To walk around with this weight of a guilt like this. You have no idea. None of you. You all could never understand what it is." Darrell." Dominic said calmly. "You all could never understand what I'm dealing with." Darrell said with tears streaming down his face. "DARRELL!" Dominic yelled. Darrell stopped talking and Imani and Jeffrey looked at Dominic with a surprised look on their faces. "I know," Dominic said. "I know exactly how it feels. Exactly what that kind of guilt feels like. Go ahead. Ask me what I've done. I have 214 people's blood on my hands." Imani and Jeffrey looked at Dominic with a stunned look on their faces. "You think you're the only monster in this house," Dominic asked. "I had my fair share just like you, except mine is on a greater scale." He paused. "I was only an Avenger for about a year now. We were on this mission in Russia. We were there to stop the Red Skull. This one moment, it was me and him alone. Of course, I had no choice but to fight him. So we battled it out. We're battling for a couple of minutes. I pushed him back a few feet and then he starts shooting at me but I blocked his attacks. He then got out two grenades and he threw them at me. With no hesitation, I telekinetically threw those grenades up in the air. But I threw them too high. I heard that those grenades hit something in the air. I looked up and I saw that I threw it up at a plane full of people. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I fell straight to my knees and broke down. All the Avengers saw the plane coming down and they tried to stop it but it was too late. The plane already crashed into a building with another hundred people inside. Killing them all. I saw as the plane crashed into the building. And I couldn't take it. All those innocent people I killed. My teammates heard my cry. Captain Marvel tried to console me but it wasn't working. I'm saying, 'It's all my fault. It's all my fault.'" Dominic then had tears coming down from his eyes nodding his head. "And that ain't even the worst part." Dominic's tears came rolling down at a faster rate. "I saw news cameras all around us. For the many people to see what I have done. Luckily, the cameras didn't catch when I threw the grenades at the plane. They only caught the plane crashing. I looked around and after that was probably the worst decision I made in my life. First, I broke all the tv cameras. Then I pushed Captain Marvel off of me. Next…" Dominic put his hands over his face and started crying even more. "I used my telepathy and invaded everybody's mind around me. I used my telepathy to erase their memory of what I did." Dominic's voice then started breaking. "My teammates, Red Skull, the news personnel. Everybody. I looked at those bodies and I used my telepathy to figure out who all knew them. As I found out, those people who knew those victims… I erased every single memory of that victim. Their families and friends do not have one single memory of that person. Like they never even existed." Jeffrey started breaking down and Imani said, "Oh my God." "After that I fell into a coma for two weeks because of what I did. Never had I displayed an amount of power like that. After I woke from my coma, nobody remembered what happened. They thought it was a random explosion that happened on the plane. I never forgave myself after day. Kept quiet and told nobody about until today." He looked at everybody and said, "There's my truth. You ain't the only one Darrell." Dominic stormed out of Darrell's room and went to his room slamming his door behind him. Darrell looked at Imani and Jeffrey with an angry look on his face with tears coming down his eyes. Jeffrey and Imani walked out of his room and as they did, Darrell slammed the door shut. The two of them looked at each other with a worried look on their face and tears coming down their faces. "What are we gonna do?" Jeffrey asked. "We just need to give them space." Imani said. Jeffrey looked at Dominic and Darrell's door and asked, "How long will it be though?" "I don't know," Imani said. "Could be awhile. I never thought they would share something so tragic. Rather than be so similar to each other." "That guy must have really got into Darrell's head or something," Jeffrey said. "What else do you think he has planned?" "Who knows? There's no telling what he has planned." Imani walked to the elevator and said, "Come on. We need to find out more about this guy." Jeffrey walked inside the elevator with her and headed straight to the Core Room./span/p


	16. Chapter 16

Back at Christopher's headquarters, his henchmen were getting geared up for battle. Christopher was in a room on a computer researching the files he stole from the Helicarrier. The files were of info on Dominic, Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell. He was trying to find ways he can defeat them all, especially Dominic. "Ah yes," Christopher said. "This will be easy. But I need a way to lure them all in one place. And that I already know how." He got up from his chair but he immediately fell to the ground. "My legs!" he shouted. The medicine he used for legs wasn't working anymore. He started crawling around. "I need my medicine." he said to himself. He crawled over to a table he had in his room and saw his medicine on the table. He grabbed and he gave himself a shot in both of his legs. After he did that, he could slowly feel his legs again. He looked at his medicine and said, "I'm running low. I need to make more of this." He slowly got off the ground and started walking around slowly until he got comfortable. He then walked to where all of his henchmen were at. As soon as he walked in, the henchmen stopped and looked his way. "Here's what we're gonna do," Chambers said. "Attack NYC. From there Dominic, Darrell, Jeffrey, and Imani will arrive to try and stop us. When they get there, do your best to stop them. Kill them if you have to. But not Dominic. That boy is mine. Go now." The henchmen got inside their robotic suits and went on their way to NYC. Christopher went to his lab and looked at his 20 foot robotic suit. He then started making some last minute changes on the suit so he could be prepared to fight.

Back on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, clean-up was still going on from earlier. Nick Fury was walking around giving orders to agents and to make sure everything was running smoothly. Doctor Strange was still on board using his magic to help with the clean up process. He was using his magic to repair the broken windows, the broken computer systems, and most importantly the main control system. After he was done, he walked over to Fury and asked, "Anything else you need?" "I think I'm okay for right now." Fury responded. "And thank you again for saving Dominic. I thought for a second he wasn't gonna make it." "He probably wasn't. Thankfully, he sent a telepathic distress call to me before he gave out." "Yeah, thank you again." Fury then gave a worried look on his face. "Is something wrong?" Strange asked. "No," Fury responded. "Everything's fine." "Well, I will be on my way then." "Thank you for help, Strange." Doctor Strange then used his magic to teleport out of the Helicarrier back to the Sanctum Santorum. Fury then walked to his private quarters and started looking around for clues that Christopher probably left behind. He saw the smashed picture of Dominic and said, "Damn." He then sat on his chair and started going through his computer. He then went through his files and couldn't find most of them. "Oh no," he said. "He must've stole most of my files." He then started going deeper into his files and couldn't find his files on Dominic, Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell. "God, he has the files of them too." he said. He put his hands over his face in distress trying to think of something he can do. He then walked out of his private quarters and walked up to the bridge. He looked out the window and was thinking of a plan. An agent walked up to him and asked, "Is there something wrong, Director?" Fury paused for a moment. He turned and looked at the agent and said, "I need to grab five of my best agents. I have a mission for them. For us." "Yes sir." The agent said as he walked off. Fury then turned back around and looked out the window again and saw Christopher's henchmen in their robotic suits and a couple jets flying to NYC. "Oh no." He then briskly walked to the main controls of the bridge and called out all available to agents to head to NYC to stop Christopher's henchmen. "This is a code red," Fury said. "I need all agents to head to NYC to stop Christopher and his henchmen. This is a code red. All agents head to NYC to stop Christopher and his henchmen." All the agents started running to the jets and headed out to NYC to stop the henchmen. The agent that Fury was talking to came running back with the 5 agents and said, "Director Fury." Fury turned around and looked at the agents and said, "Thank you Agent Miller." Agent Miller walked away and got ready to get on the jet to face Christopher and his henchmen. "Thank you for meeting with me," Fury said. "I have a mission for you all. Matter fact for us." "What do you mean us?" one agent asked. "I mean that I will be joining you on this mission." Fury responded. "And what is the mission, Director?" another agent asked. "We're gonna raid Christopher's base and find out what he has taken from here," Fury said. "That way we can finally figure what his true plan his and why he's after my nephew and the others." He took a pause and then as he walked away, he said, "Be ready in 5 minutes. I'll have a jet ready for you guys."


	17. Chapter 17

Back at the home of Dominic, Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell, tensions were still high after Dominic and Darrell made their tragic confessions. Dominic was still in his room still feeling upset after his talk with Darrell and vice versa. Imani and Jeffrey were in the Core Room trying to find out more information on Christopher. Imani pulled up a file on Christopher and said, "Jeff, look at this." "What's up?" he asked. He sat next to Imani and looked at the file she was looking at. "He's a former member of HYDRA," Jeffrey said. "How long though?" "It says a few years," Imani said. "He left after he was involved in a traumatic injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down." "He was fine to me last time we saw him." Jeffrey said. "He must have created something that gives him use of his legs again." Imani said. Imani started reading more info about him to try and get more information about him. "Can you find any info about those suits he and his guys were wearing?" Jeffrey asked. "No, but get this," Imani said. "He broke into to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Raft." "What's that?" "It's where S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps some of the most dangerous super villains. I'm surprised you never heard of it." "Nope. Why was he there?" "Apparently. He stole some of the villains' tech. Maybe that's what he used to make his robotic suits." Imani looked at Jeffrey and said, "We need to figure out what he has planned and what his next move is." "With just the two of us?" Jeffrey asked. "For right now, yes," Imani responded. "You saw how Darrell and Dom were. It's gonna be awhile for them to come around." "Make that three." a familiar voice said. Jeffrey and Imani turned around and saw Dominic at the door. "Dominic." Imani said. She walked up to him and gave him a hug. Jeffrey followed and did the same thing. "You feeling better?" Jeffrey asked. "Yeah, I am." he said as he was wiping a tear away. Dominic sighed and said, "Look, I wanna apologize for not being completely honest with y'all." "Dominic," Jeffrey said. "You don't have to apologize for that. We completely understand." "Really," Imani said. "We understand why you hid that for us. We sympathize with you. We're here for you." "Thank you guys," Dominic said. "I just wasn't prepared to share that with you guys and it was hard. I appreciate it." "Everyone, I believe we have a problem." CT said. "What's wrong CT?" Dominic asked. "I believe Christopher's henchmen have reached New York City and are attacking the city as we speak." CT then automatically turned on the main computer and showed live video footage of the henchmen attacking the city. "Oh my God." Imani said as she watched the footage. "Where is this at?" Jeffrey asked. "Midtown Manhattan," CT said. "S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are currently down there as we speak holding them off but I don't think they can hold them for long." Dominic then walked up to the screen to get a closer look on the video. He turned around and looked at Imani and Jeffrey and said, "CT's right. Those agents won't be able to last long unless we step in. Time's up y'all. I think it's time to show everyone who we are." Jeffrey and Imani then looked at each other and gave each other a nod. "Imani, are our suits ready?" Dominic asked. "I've been waiting on you to ask me that," she responded. "I'll get them for y'all." She walked out of the Core Room and Dominic asked Jeff, "Can you ready up the jet?" "No problem." Jeffrey said as he walked away to the jet. Dominic walked out of the Core Room and went upstairs to look for Darrell. He arrived at Darrell's door and started knocking. "Hey Darrell." he said as he was knocking on his door. He heard no answer. "Darrell." he said again knocking on his door. Still no answer. Dominic sighed and used his powers to open his door. He walked in and said, "Darrell, we really…" He stopped as he saw that everything in Darrell's room was gone. Dominic gave out a sigh and put his head down and said, "Shit." He walked out of his room and back to the Core Room to get suited up. A few minutes later, Imani and Jeffrey were already in the jet suited up in their all black leather superhero suits. Dominic then walked in the jet in his black superhero suit as well. "Where's Darrell?" Imani asked. Dominic looked down on the ground and said, "He's gone." "What do you mean?" Jeffrey asked as he got up out of his seat. "He left," Dominic responded. "I went up to his room and all of his stuff was gone." "That guilt must've got to him." Imani said. "What do we do?" Jeffrey asked. "We still go on," Dominic said. "We'll be fine with just the three of us." All three of them looked at each other. "Are we ready?" Dominic asked. "We are." Jeffrey and Imani said at the same time. Dominic threw them their communicators and they caught it. Jeffrey sat down back in his seat and Dominic sat next to Jeffrey in the co-pilot chair. Jeffrey was firing up the jet and the three of them were ready to go save the city.


	18. Chapter 18

As they were arriving in the city, they could already see the destruction from a couple miles away. "Oh no." Imani said. "This is worse than I thought." Dominic said. "Where are the agents?" Jeffrey asked. "We probably gotta get closer than where are right now." Dominic said. As they did that, somebody was attacking the jet from the behind. "What was that?" Jeffrey asked. Dominic put a force field around the jet to protect themselves. "That's gotta be his henchmen." Dominic said. More henchmen started flying towards the jet and Jeffrey said, "Dom, put the field down. I got something for them." He did as he said and put the force field down. The henchmen pulled up in front of the jet and Jeffrey pressed a button and the jet started firing guns attacking the henchmen. The henchmen took damage from and they started falling out the sky one by one. More henchmen started flying towards the jet. Dominic looked at Jeffrey and said, "Jeff, we can't stay in the sky for long. I need you go out there and take care of everybody in the sky. I'll take control of the jet." "Y'all gonna be okay?" he asked. "We'll be fine." Dominic said. Jeffrey pressed a button and the door to the jet opened. Jeffrey got up out of his seat and Dominic came and sat in his seat. Before Jeffrey jumped out the jet, he looked back at Dominic and Dominic looked back at him and said, "You got this man." Jeffrey nodded his head and turned into his fire form. He jumped out the jet and started flying to the henchmen attacking the jet. Dominic, having control of the jet, pulled away from the crossfire between the henchmen and Jeffrey and flew away to go Midtown Manhattan. Jeffrey pulled up in front of the henchmen and threw a fireball at them which exploded on impact and caused damage to about three of the henchmen. The henchmen started firing at Jeffrey and he dodged most their attacks except for one of them that sent him flying back at few feet. "Alright then," he said. "Let's play hard ball then." He put his hands together and slowly pulled them apart as he was making a gigantic ball of fire. The henchmen started shooting at Jeffrey again but he put up ball of fire in front of him and used it as a shield. As they stopped attacking him, Jeffrey threw the ball of fire at them, which caused major damage to the henchmen's suits and they started falling out the sky. As that happened, more henchmen started coming towards him and he said, "Alright then. Let's go ahead and play tag." He started flying away and the henchmen started flying after him. Dominic and Imani arrived in Midtown Manhattan where the battle between the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and Christopher's henchmen were taking place. The henchmen were outnumbered by the agent but that didn't mean a thing to them as they took down the agents one by one. "Those agents can't hold off for very long." Dominic said. "We gotta stop them quickly." Imani said. Dominic landed the jet on top of a building and Dominic and Imani ran out the jet. They looked from above and looked at the action taking place. Dominic held out his hand to Imani and Imani took his hand and Dominic used his other hand and created a force field to protect the agents. The henchmen stopped attacking and Dominic and Imani jumped off the roof and Dominic created a force slide to get down to the henchmen. Imani then let go of Dominic's hand and jumped off his force slide. "Imani!" Dominic shouted. Imani turned into her diamond form as she was falling and she landed on one of the henchmen and started attacking him. The henchmen saw Imani and started running towards her. Dominic landed on the ground and turned invisible and started firing force bolts at the henchmen. Imani started pummeling one enemy after another and even started ripping robotic suits apart. After Dominic got through attacking some of the henchmen, he came out of his invisibility and took the force field down he held up for the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. He ran to the agents and asked, "Is everybody alright?" "We're good but we got some agents who are critically injured." an agent responded. "Is there a medical team available?" "We trying to get in contact with ambulances but we're having no luck." "Ok there gonna need a safe place to get to. Also, if you guys can, I need y'all to get some of the civilians trapped in some of these nearby buildings. My telepathy is spotting them in a nearby radius." "Sure thing Mr. Middleton." another agent said. "Some of y'all stay with the injured agents. I'll put y'all in a safe spot." Over half of the agents left to rescue the civilians while some of them stayed with the injured agents. "Alright you guys hang on." Dominic said. He put a force field over them and telekinetically lifted them and put them on the same roof where Imani, Dominic, and Jeffrey's jet were at. "You guys should be safe up there," Dominic said to them telepathically. "I'll make sure a medical team gets to where you're at." Dominic was then hit from behind and fell to the ground. "Dominic!" Imani shouted. She ran up to the henchman that attacked Dominic and gave a powerful punch and sent the henchman flying back into a building. She helped Dominic up from the ground and asked, "You okay?" "Always." he said getting up from the ground. "We need to help the agents rescue some of the civilians from these buildings here around us." Dominic said. Suddenly, more henchmen started firing at Dominic and Imani and they dodged their attacks. Dominic put up a force field in front of himself and Imani. Jeffrey came out of nowhere and put a ring of fire around the henchmen. He then hurled several fireballs at them shutting down their robotic suits. Dominic and Imani looked up and Jeffrey said, "Y'all do what you gotta do. I'll take care of it." Dominic and Imani looked at each other and went their separate ways to rescue the civilians.


	19. Chapter 19

Nick Fury and his 5 agents arrived at Christopher's headquarters. They landed about half a mile away so they won't be detected. One agent got out a pair of goggles and put them on. "What do you see Agent Lopez?" Fury asked. "I don't see anything," Lopez responded. "It doesn't look like nobody is in there." "Well that makes it easier for us." Fury said. They started moving in on the headquarters but then they heard something coming from the roof. They took cover behind the trees so they won't get caught. They saw that two robotic suits were flying off to Manhattan. One regular robotic suit and another one that was about 20 feet tall. "They must be heading to NYC." one agent said. "Let's hope our guys can stop them." another agent said. After those two robotic suits were out of their way, they started moving in on Christopher's headquarters with Fury leading them. They walked up to the front door of the headquarters and planted a small device on the door. The took a few steps back and after a few seconds later the door exploded. Nick Fury and the agents stood there for a few seconds waiting on something to happen. After that, they started moving inside the facility slowly looking around making sure no trouble arises. As they looked around inside, they saw leftover robot scraps on the ground. "They must've spent a lot of time in here creating the suits." an agent said. One agent saw a blueprint on the ground and the blueprint looked very familiar to her. "Director Fury," she said. "Take a look at these blueprints." Fury walked over to her and looked at the blueprint she had. "Design is very similar to Hydra." he said. "Almost like an exact replica." another agent said. "That's because Chambers is a former member of Hydra." Fury said. They started looking around some more and Fury said, "Agent Lopez, I want you with me." "Yes sir." he responded. Fury and Agent Lopez left the room and went upstairs to find more clues. They ended up inside Christopher's private quarters and saw the pictures that he had of Dominic, Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell. The pictures all had red x's across their faces but on Dominic had knives cut through his pictures. Fury walked up and looked at those pictures. He looked at his nephew's pictures and removed the knives that were on his pictures. "If only I knew what he wanted with Dominic." Fury said. Fury looked around some more to find more clues. Fury then went to Christopher's computer to find even more clues. He started typing on his computer and found the files that he had on Dominic, Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell. "He's been spying on them this whole time," Fury said. "He has the videos that I showed Dominic and knows some of their weaknesses. I need to find more about this."/span/p


	20. Chapter 20

Back in Midtown Manhattan, chaos was still happening as Jeffrey, Imani, Dominic, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were still battling off the henchmen. Jeffrey was still in the sky handling his own against some of the henchmen. He saw some of the henchmen headed over to where the injured agents were at and Jeffrey flew over to that area. Before the henchmen attacked the agents, Jeffrey yelled out, "Hey!" The henchmen turned around and started firing energy blast at Jeffrey. Jeffrey fired fireballs at the blasts coming at him to his defense. The blasts ceased as each fireball hit it. The henchmen flew to Jeffrey and he held out his hands and unleashed a continuous blast of scorching fire immediately disabling the henchmen's suits and them falling to the ground. Imani and some agents were inside a building getting all the civilians out of there. Imani heard gunshots nearby and started running to that area. She saw a man over there trying to defend himself but he couldn't. "HELP!" the man screamed. Imani ran as quick as a cheetah and she got in front of the man and deflected the bullets from the henchman off her body. She grabbed a column nearby and ripped it in half and threw it at the henchman. The henchman tried to dodge it but it was too late. The column crashed into the henchman and crushed him. Imani ran back to the man's aid and asked, "You okay?" "Yeah." the man replied as he gazed into her eyes. They both stared at each other for a couple of seconds and Imani said, "Come on. Let's get you somewhere safe." They both walked out of the building and she led him to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. "We got one more," she said to the agents. "They'll take you to a safe spot." "Thank you." the man said. Imani smiled back at him. More henchmen cam behind Imani and started attacking. "Go get out of here!" she shouted. She held her arms out and lunged at the henchmen knocking them back. Then Dominic came by Imani's side and created a force field over the henchmen she knocked back and slammed the force field on them crushing them. "Nice assist." Imani said. "Thanks." Dominic said. "Jeff, you're good up there?" he asked over his communicator. "Yeah, I think I'm good." Jeffrey said. "But we're just getting started." a mysterious voice said. Imani and Dominic looked up and saw that it was Christopher and dozens more of his henchmen. "How many henchmen does he have?" Imani asked. "Jeff, we need you over here." Dominic said. "On my… AAHH!" Jeffrey screamed. "JEFFREY!" Dominic and Imani screamed. Christopher started laughing and Dominic and Imani got in position ready to attack with Dominic making two swords out of his force fields. "Can you handle all these henchmen by yourself?" Dominic asked. "I think so," Imani responded. "Why?" "Cause Chambers is all mine." Dominic floated in the air and went straight to Chambers. The henchmen ran towards Imani and she jumped up in the air and slammed her fist into the ground knocking down the henchmen running to her. She then picked up a car and threw at the henchmen to try and slow them down.

Dominic and Christopher were battling it out. Dominic was using his swords to slash his way through Christopher's suit but the suit was taking little damage from it. Christopher then back handed Dominic that sent him flying back a several feet. "Ah!" he shouted as he landed on the ground. "Now I know you got more power than that." Christopher said. "I was just going easy on you," Dominic said. "But since you asked for it." He then fired continuous force bolts at Christopher off balance. It seemed to be working until Christopher fired back with his own force blast. Dominic held up a force field to protect himself from the blast. Dominic then ceased his force field and they stood there for a moment. "You know I've been waiting for this moment for a long time." Christopher said. "For what?" Dominic asked. "You think I would forget wouldn't you?" "Forget what Chambers?" Dominic asked as he walked towards closer to him. "You killed my wife and child." Dominic stopped in his tracks and said, "Excuse you?" "You heard me," Christopher said. "Russia. 2013. You and the Avengers were out there battling the Red Skull as I was one of his Hydra henchmen." "Oh no." Dominic said. "Those grenades you threw in the air happen to hit the plane my wife and child were on. Dominic started breaking down in tears. "And I knew you were trying to erase everyone's memory of that explosion but unfortunately for you, you missed one person. And that person was me. You think cause of what you did that makes you good again? Can you wipe out that much blood on your hands? Drake Hilton. Stacey Maddock. Paul Bennett. There's 211 more names I could go through." Dominic froze as he had tears coming down his face. "I'm so sorry," Dominic said sobbing. "I didn't mean to do it. It was accident." "Sorry doesn't cut it." Christopher fired an energy blast at Dominic that sent him flying back. Dominic landed on the ground and he wasn't moving. Christopher came flying to him and stood right next him. Dominic opened his eyes and saw Christopher standing above him. Christopher then grabbed Dominic by his neck and started choking him. As Christopher started lifting Dominic off the ground, he said, "You took everything away from me. My legs. My family! EVERYTHING!" Dominic tried everything in him to use his powers but with Christopher choking him, it was hard for him to concentrate as he was gasping for air. "Time for you to pay." Christopher said. He then threw Dominic up in the air and blasted him to a nearby building. Dominic crashed through a window and landed on the ground pretty hard leaving him unconscious. Christopher then flew up to the building where Dominic and landed a few feet away from his unconscious body. He started walking up slowly to his body and he said, "This is gonna bring me great satisfaction." He got close enough to his body and got out his blaster and aimed it at Dominic. "So long Dominic." He fired his blaster at Dominic but then the blast deflected from his body. "What the hell?" Christopher asked himself. He tried again and the same thing happened. "I suggest you get away from him." a mysterious voice said from behind. Christopher turned around and saw that it was Darrell. Darrell was floating in the sky in his black leather suit with two tow trucks levitating behind him. "Darrell Robinson," Christopher said. "A two for one special ain't so bad." He fired his blaster at Darrell but Darrell dodged it and he threw the two trucks at Christopher which sent him flying out the building. Darrell then flew inside and rushed to Dominic's aid. He grabbed Dominic's head and said, "Come on Dom. You're ok." He tried a couple attempts to get him to regain consciousness but it wasn't working. Darrell then put his hand on Dominic's forehead and used his telepathic powers to regain consciousness. As he did that, Dominic's eyes slowly opened and Darrell put a satisfying smile on his face. Dominic looked up and saw that Darrell saved him. "Darrell." he said. They both got up from the ground and they both gave each other a hug. "Thank you," Dominic said. "Thank you." "I'm sorry I left y'all," Darrell said. "I never should've did that." "Save the apology for later. I'm just glad you're here now." They stopped hugging and Darrell saw that Dominic's head was bleeding. "You're bleeding." he said. "It's okay." Dominic said. They both looked outside and saw that the henchmen were still causing chaos outside and Dominic asked, "So I'm guessing you're pretty comfortable with your flying right?" "Yeah." Darrell responded. "Jeffrey is in the skies handling some of the henchmen and I need you to meet up him and help him out. I'll rendezvous back with Imani and help her out down on the ground." "No problem." Both of them flew out the building to go help their teammates. Jeffrey was getting outnumbered by the henchmen as he was having trouble defeating them. He created a fire shield to protect himself from the guns they were firing at him. All of a sudden, the bullets stopped in mid air and the henchmen were looking confused. The bullets then flew back at the henchmen at jet like speed and took damage to them leaving a few of them falling out of the sky. Darrell flew by Jeffrey's side and Jeffrey was excited to see Darrell. "You're here!" he shouted. Darrell smiled back and he telekinetically lifted a piece of terrain from the ground and before he threw it, Jeffrey ignited the terrain and Darrell said, "Nice one." He threw it at the henchmen which caused the terrain to explode in thousands of pieces and took out all the henchmen that were in the sky. They gave each other a high five and Jeffrey said, "Let's catch back up with the others." They flew away to go look for their teammates. Imani was struggling as well as she was getting outnumbered by the henchmen. One henchmen grabbed her and threw her across the street but Dominic telekinetically caught her with his force field before she landed. He safely landed her on the ground and Dominic came running to her side. "Thanks." Imani said. "I have an idea," Dominic said. "You ever seen that movie with the superhero family?" "Umm, I think I know what you are talking about." Imani said. "And the kids, they made that force ball thing." "Yeah what about it?" The henchmen started running towards Dominic and Imani. Dominic created a bubble around himself and Imani with Dominic floating above her like he was flying. "Now run as fast as you can." Dominic said. Imani started running and they both started screaming with the bubble they were in was moving like a gerbil on a wheel. The henchmen stopped running and started firing energy blasts at them but their bubble was taking no effect as it deflected the blasts. Dominic and Imani crashed into the henchmen and the henchmen started flying in the air in different directions. They continued to attack the henchmen until all was clear in their area. Dominic ceased the force bubble and he was back on the ground. Imani turned back into her form and asked, "You think that was it?" "I hope so." Dominic responded. Jeffrey and Darrell came flying in to Dominic and Imani's side. "Hey Imani." Darrell said. "Darrell!" she shouted as she was running towards him giving him a hug. "I'm so glad you're back." she said. "Glad to be back." Darrell said. Jeffrey looked on top of a building and saw one last henchman standing. "Guys, I think we have one more left." Jeffrey said. The rest of them turned around and saw the same thing as Jeffrey did. "It's Chambers." Darrell said. Dominic was walking towards the building and he said, "Cut the shit Chambers! It's all over." "Well then," Christopher said. "Let the fun begin. He raised his hand and balled it up into a fist. After he did that, hundreds of henchmen started coming out of nowhere. They started coming out of buildings, coming behind Christopher, and flying in the sky. "Well shit." Dominic said. "This is gonna be a tough one." Jeffrey said. "You see guys," Christopher said. "It would've just been me coming after Dominic but since you guys are fighting alongside him, I guess I have to take all of y'all out." The henchmen started moving in a bit closer to the them. Jeffrey and Imani turned into their respective forms. Darrell opened up his hands ready to attack. And Dominic's hands started turning into a transparent blue color as he was creating energy from his force fields. All four of them stood with their backs to each other looking around at the henchmen. "All right y'all," Dominic said. "This is what we've been preparing for. Are y'all ready?" "Good to go." Imani said. "Always." Jeffrey said. "Ready when you are." Darrell said. All four of them looked around at the henchmen one more time and Dominic said, "Let's kick some ass."


	21. Chapter 21

The henchmen started running towards the four and as they did, Dominic yelled out, "Jeffrey now!" He quickly floated above them and created a ring of fire outside the four of them as a distraction. Jeffrey started attacking the henchmen from above as he threw a barrage of fireballs at the henchmen. Dominic, Imani, and Darrell went their separate ways as they started attacking various henchmen. Dominic held out his arms toward the henchmen and sent out a continuous wave of energy knocking back and crushing the henchmen. He then lifted up a group of enemies using his force field and slammed them back on the ground. Imani was pummeling one henchmen after another one ripping the robotic suits apart like she was a vicious animal. She jumped up in the air and came slamming down on her fists leaving most of the henchmen flying the sky and crashing down to the ground. She then started charging at the henchmen leaving them flying in the sky as hit each one of them. Darrell created a telekinetic shield to block the attacks that were coming for him. With his shield still up, he held one arm and telekinetically lifted up a henchman and threw him into a few henchmen knocking them out. He saw a truck in a nearby area and he telekinetically lifted it up and slammed it down on a group of enemies with the tow truck exploding a few seconds after. There were still more henchmen left for them to defeat. "Imani and Darrell," Dominic said to them over their communicators. "You guys team up for a bit. We might get done quicker if we combine our powers." Imani ran to Darrell's side and fought alongside him. She punched her way through the enemies knocking them while Darrell sent out a continues wave of telekinetic energy knocking them back. "Imani." Darrell said. "What's up?" she responded as she was attacking the henchmen. "Spread your arms out." "What?" "Just do it." She did as he said and he said, "You might get dizzy a little bit." "You're not about to do what I think you're about do." Imani said. Darrell telekinetically spun Imani around making her into a spinning diamond and spun through the henchmen with her diamond hard fists tearing the robotic suits apart. Dominic and Jeffrey were flying around attacking numerous henchmen throughout the sky. Jeffrey creating a barrage of fire in the sky, obliterating enemies coming for Jeffrey and Dominic. Dominic was firing force bolts knocking out enemies one by one. After he did that he created a force field near Jeffrey and yelled out, "Jeff! I need some fire." "On it." Jeffrey replied. Dominic made an opening in his force field for Jeffrey and Jeffrey filled up the force field with scorching fire. Dominic closed the force field and threw it at oncoming henchmen ready to attack them causing them to fall out of the sky.  
Back at Christopher's headquarters, Fury was still on Christopher's computer finding more info. He found out more info on his plan to kill Dominic and to capture Darrell, Jeffrey, and Imani. He froze in shock when he found out this info. He also found info on the robotic suits and also about his disability and his medicine. "This man has a lot of info on deck that we could take back with us." Fury said. Agent Lopez was walking around Christopher's private quarters looking for more clues. He found a button on a bookcase and he said, "Director Fury, I believe I found something." Fury walked over to Lopez's side and saw the button on the bookcase too. He pressed the button and the bookcase started opening up. The bookcase opened up to be a doorway leading to a secret place. They opened the door and they walked through the door. What they saw inside was something they couldn't believe. It was a control center for all the robotic suits. Some of Christopher's henchmen were at the controls making sure everything was running smoothly. One of the henchmen heard footsteps from afar and looked up and saw Fury and Agent Lopez. "Intruders at the entrance!" the henchmen yelled. The rest of the henchmen looked and saw the duo and got out their guns and started shooting at them. The duo split up and took cover. They got their guns ready and started shooting back at them. It was a shootout between the henchmen and Fury and Agent Lopez. The shooting lasted for a couple minutes. Fury then got out a smoke grenade and threw it out to the henchmen. The grenade exploded and smoke started filling the room. "Let's go!" Fury yelled. Fury and Agent Lopez left their cover and started attacking the henchmen in a hand to hand combat. It was easy takedown for Fury and Agent Lopez as none of the henchmen didn't have good training in hand to hand combat. After they got done taking down the henchmen, Fury ran to the main controls to try and find a way to shut down the robotic suits. He then saw a live video feed of the showdown that was going in Midtown Manhattan. Countless waves of Christopher's henchmen attacking Dominic, Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell. "Oh God," he said. "I gotta find a way to shut this down." He then tried to hack into the system to shut down the robotic suits but nothing seems to be working. "Lopez," Fury said. "I need you to go back on that computer and find those files so I can find a way to shut these suits down." "Got it." Lopez said as he ran off.  
Dominic, Imani, Jeffrey, and Darrell were still battling through countless waves of henchmen. Dominic was in one area with the henchmen and was attacking them with a staff he made out of his force field. He swung it around the henchmen and after he did that, he turned invisible as he did a backflip and threw out mini swords and stabbed the robotic suits disabling them. Imani, in her area, clapped her hands together creating a shockwave in a massive radius disabling the robotic suits making them fall apart. Jeffrey created a fire wall in front of him and pushed it back to the henchmen burning their suits. Darrell had the henchmen running towards him and when they got close enough, he released a burst of telekinetic energy that sent them flying a back a few feet. Darrell ran back to regroup with the rest of his teammates. All four of them were together again and Imani said, "There's so many of them." "This is gonna be awhile." Jeffrey said. All of the henchmen came running towards them and Dominic said, "We'll we can't just give up now." As the four of them got ready to attack them, something was happening with the henchmen as they stopped running. "What's going on?" Darrell asked. The henchmen's robotic suits started falling apart. "Dominic or Darrell, are y'all doing this?" Imani asked. "It's not me." Darrell said. "If it was me, y'all would've saw." Dominic said. The henchmen were now escaping their robotic suits as the suits created mini explosions disabling them. The henchmen were now defenseless without the suits but were still ready to put up a fight. They started running towards the four of them and Jeffrey said, "This is gonna be easy." "Darrell and I got this." Dominic said as him and Darrell took a few steps forward. They looked at each other and gave each other a nod. They held out their arms and performed a telepathic attack against all the henchmen leaving them groaning in pain and grabbing their heads to try and stop the pain. But it was no use. After a few seconds, all the henchmen dropped to the ground unconscious. "Looks like I taught you well." Dominic said. "You're not so bad yourself." Darrell said. Imani and Jeffrey walked up by their side. "You guys ok?" Imani asked. "Why wouldn't we be?" Dominic responded. They all looked around and saw that their job was finally finished. "Is that it?" Jeffrey asked. "Let's hope so." Darrell asked. Suddenly, a grenade popped up in front of them. Dominic was the first one to saw it and yelled, "Grenade!" The grenade exploded which sent them crashing into a building. They all started coughing and groaning in pain. "Is everyone alright?" Dominic asked. "Yeah." all three of them responded. They walked out the building to find where the grenade came from. Then they heard loud footsteps. "What's that?" Jeffrey asked. Out of nowhere, a 20 foot tall robot appeared out of nowhere. "Oh my God." Dominic said. In the head of the robot, they saw it was Christopher inside controlling the robot. "It's Chambers." Imani said. "You guys are gonna get it now." Christopher said. He started firing repulsor blasts and the four heroes took cover. As he continued to fire the blasts, Imani yelled out, "What do we do?!" Dominic got out from his cover and launched out a quick force bolt to try and throw Christopher off balance. He quickly got back into cover and he said, "We go out there and attack for right now. Defend yourselves by any means necessary." They all ran away from their cover and started running towards Christopher. Imani turned into her diamond form and Jeffrey turned into his fiery form flying in the air towards Christopher. Christopher continued firing blasts at them but Dominic put up a force field to protect everyone. He pushed the force field back to Christopher to keep him off balance and for everyone else to attack. Jeffrey threw countless fireballs at Christopher while Imani was throwing cars and trucks at him. Darrell used his telekinesis and threw pieces of terrain at Christopher. All of their attacks seem to have no effect as Christopher released a burst of energy around them knocking them back. "It isn't working!" Jeffrey shouted. Christopher then looked at Dominic as he got up from the ground and started firing mini rockets at him. Dominic held up a force field to protect himself. As he kept on firing, Darrell flew in the sky and telekinetically grabbed a couple of tow trucks. Jeffrey saw what he was doing and he lit the tow trucks on fire. He threw them at Christopher and it created a large explosion. Dominic ceased his force field and ran off to Imani. All four of the heroes paused to see what would happen next. Christopher and his suit came out of the explosion with minor damages to the suit. "Damn it." Jeffrey said. Dominic looked at Imani and he said, "I got something." He turned on his communicator and he said, "Jeff and Darrell. Do everything in your power to keep Chambers distracted. Me and Imani have something." "We'll do our best." Darrell said. Dominic grabbed Imani's hand and made themselves turn invisible. Darrell flew to Jeffrey's side and asked, "What do you wanna do?" "I don't know," Jeffrey responded. "We gotta keep him on his toes." Darrell looked around and saw that they were near a parking garage. "That parking garage." Darrell said. "What about it?" Jeffrey asked. "For now, I'm just gonna throw cars at Chambers and you're gonna set them on fire as I throw them. Same thing you did to those tow trucks." "Sounds like a plan." They both flew in the sky and Darrell started throwing the cars at Christopher while Jeffrey fires them up. As he was throwing the cars, Christopher blasted the cars with his energy blaster to protect himself while walking towards them. "It's not taking any effect." Jeffrey said. "Just keep going." Darrell said. On a roof nearby, Dominic and Imani came out of Dominic's invisibility and Imani turned back into her regular form and asked, "What are we going do?" "You're gonna be the first step." Dominic responded. "What do you mean?" "I'm gonna throw you at Chambers. Meaning I'm gonna telekinetically throw you into Chambers' suit multiple times. Your diamond form should keep you safe from injury and the suit should malfunction after that." "Then throw me into his arms and rocket systems. That way he won't attack and he won't find a way to escape." "Great idea." Imani turned into her diamond form and Dominic made her invisible. Darrell and Jeffrey were running out of cars to throw at Christopher and Jeffrey said, "He's getting closer." Christopher was now firing blasts at Jeffrey and Darrell and Darrell held up a telekinetic shield to protect himself and Jeffrey. "I can't hold this up much longer." he said groaning. "Then we're taking cover for now." Jeffrey said. Jeffrey grabbed Darrell and they flew away with Christopher following them. "Hey Chambers!" Dominic yelled out. Christopher turned around and saw Dominic on a roof. "If you want me, I'm right here." Dominic said. "You know I'm gonna take great pleasure in this." Christopher said. He started shooting at Dominic and Dominic put up a force field to protect himself. He then flung out his arm in Christopher's direction. Next thing you know, holes started appearing in his robotic suit as Imani was flying in and out of Christopher's suit causing major damage to his suit. "What the hell?" Christopher said to himself. The bullets stopped firing from his suit and Dominic ceased his force field. Jeffrey and Darrell saw what was going on and Jeffrey asked, "What's going on?" Dominic made Imani visible again as she ran to Darrell and Jeffrey's side. "What did you do?" Darrell asked. "Dominic threw me inside his suit." Imani responded. Dominic flew over to the rest of his teammates and he said, "Jeff. You're going supernova on him." "You sure?" Jeffrey asked. "Positive." Jeffrey turned into his fiery form and flew over to Christopher's suit. "Won't that cause a big explosion?" Imani asked. "I'll make sure it won't spread." Dominic said. Jeffrey started flying around Christopher's suit as his flames grew hotter and hotter until some of his flames turned into a bright white light. He then makes a tall fiery column around Christopher's suit. Christopher is shocked to see what is going on here. Dominic got as close as he can with the flames and created a force field surrounding Jeffrey and Christopher to contain Jeffrey's power. With that much power Jeffrey had, it his flames become increasingly bright to the point where it's blinding Darrell and Imani. They turn and look away. Dominic's nose started bleeding as it was becoming difficult to contain Jeffrey's power. Then a burst of light happens as Jeffrey's supernova caused an explosion. Jeffrey then falls out of the sky from exhaustion and Dominic ceased his force field as he fell to his knees exhausted from containing Jeffrey's power. Imani saw Jeffrey falling from the sky and she said, "Oh no!" She turned into her diamond form and ran to where Jeffrey was about to land. She successfully caught him and said, "You okay?" He didn't say a word because he was unconscious from going supernova. Darrell ran to Dominic's side and helped him off his knees. "You good?" he asked. "Yeah." Dominic said softly. As the flames died down, they saw that the robotic suit was melting from the scorching hot temperature. Christopher was still inside his suit and tried to get out but nothing was working. Dominic telekinetically broke off what was left of Christopher's suit to make sure he got out safely. He then grabbed Christopher telekinetically and placed him away from the flames. Jeffrey woke up in Imani's arms and asked, "What happened?" "I think we beat him." Imani said as she let down Jeffrey. The four of them walked up to Chambers and Chambers then fell to the ground groaning in great pain grabbing his legs. "What's wrong with him?" Jeffrey asked. "I don't know." Darrell asked. Dominic started using his telepathic powers and read Christopher's mind. "He lost use of his legs." Dominic said. "But how?" Darrell asked. "He's a paraplegic," Imani asked. "He's been using a medicine that he created that gives him back the use of his legs for a short time." "How did you know this?" Dominic asked. "We looked up his file back at home." Jeffrey asked. They all walked even closer to him pissed at what he's done to them and the city. "You all are gonna pay for what you did to me." Christopher said. "You really think so?" Imani asked. "Think about what you just said," Jeffrey said. "We're gonna pay?" "You really got us fucked up with that." Darrell said. Dominic got even closer to him and said, "What I did to years ago was wrong. And I take full responsibility of that. But throwing your anger out on me, my friends, my uncle, and all of S.H.I.E.L.D. ain't gonna solve nothing. Let this be a learning lesson to you today." Christopher then spit at Dominic and started laughing. The other three looked in shock. Dominic sighed and gave one satisfying punch to Christopher knocking him out. After he punched him, all four of them turned away from Christopher and looked at Midtown Manhattan. "I guess we did it." Jeffrey said. "We did," Dominic said. "We saved the city." "So this is what it feels like huh?" Darrell asked. They looked at each other and gave each other a smile. "But what are we gonna do about with Chambers?" Imani asked. They turned around and looked at Christopher and Dominic said, "I know S.H.I.E.L.D. got something for him." Jeffrey turned back around and he said, "But look at this mess. How are they gonna get all of this?" "Damage Control." Dominic said. "What's that?" Imani asked. "They're usually the company who cleans up after messes like this," Darrell said. "Trust me, living in New York all my life, I've seen them around plenty of times." "But until they get here, we're gonna help with the clean up for now." Dominic said.


	22. Chapter 22

A couple hours later, the four heroes and Damage Control were cleaning up the mess between them and Christopher. As they were cleaning up, a jet came flying in and landed in the middle of the street where the young heroes were. All four of them looked confused as to what or who could be in the jet. As the doors from the jet opened, out came Nick Fury and dozens of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. As the agents were rushing out of the jet, Fury walked out of the jet with confidence as he slowly smiled looking at the heroes at what they accomplished. "Uncle Nick!" Dominic excitedly shouted as he walked up to him. Imani, Darrell, and Jeffrey followed behind Dominic. "I'm very proud of you guys." Fury said. "Thank you." Imani said. "And you can also thank me for shutting down the robotic suits." Fury said. "You did that?" Jeffrey asked. "But how did you do that?" Darrell asked. "We searched around Chambers' base. Trying to look for more info on him and figure out a way to defeat him but it looks like you all beat me to that." They all slightly chuckled. "But you guys did an awesome job out here. You guys are gonna be successful heroes in the near future." Fury then put his hand on Dominic's shoulder and said, "I'm especially proud of you. I knew you had it in you to become a great leader. And you're gonna be an even greater one in the future." "Thank you." Dominic said as he gave him a hug. "Why don't you guys let us handle the clean up with Damage Control." Fury said. "You sure you don't want us to stay?" Dominic said. "Yeah, we got it." "And what about Chambers," Imani asked. "What are you gonna do with him?" "Oh trust me," Fury responded. "We got something special planned for him. Besides where he is?" "Over there still unconscious," Jeffrey said pointing at his body. "Dominic has him in a force field to make sure he doesn't escape." "I wanna know what he wanted with you Dominic," Fury said. "He was coming for you mostly but I couldn't find anything on that." Dominic sighed and put his head down. "There's a terrible thing I did a few years back," Dominic said. "But I can show you better than I can tell you." He walked up to his uncle and placed his hand on his head. He used his telepathic powers and showed the images to his uncle in his mind to show him the tragic thing he did. As Fury saw the images, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He stood there stunned at what was shown to him and his mouth slowly dropped. The images stopped playing in his uncle's head and Dominic removed his hand from his head. "I'm sorry didn't tell you this," Dominic said. "I was so ashamed at what I did that I didn't tell anybody. Until today when I told them." Dominic looked back at his teammates and put his head down. "Look at me," Fury said as he lifted his nephew's head. "That was all an accident. I know how you are. And as I said before we all make mistakes." "I know," Dominic said. "I just wanted to be the perfect hero you know." Nick then pulled in his nephew and gave Dominic a hug. "It's okay," he said. "We've all done horrible things in this thing we called life. And I have too." They both let go of each other and Dominic said, "Thanks." "Director Fury," Jeffrey asked. "We can continue to say and help clean if you need us to." "No it's ok," Fury said. "You guys go on." "Are you sure?" Darrell asked. "Yeah, I am." The four young heroes walked off and Dominic stopped and turned around looking at his uncle. "Uncle Nick." he said. Nick turned around and looked at his nephew. "Thank you again." He smiled at his nephew and said, "Anytime." /span/p  
p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;" As the four young heroes got in their jet and flew away, Jeffrey put the jet on auto-pilot and said, "I still can't believe we did that." "Y'all should be proud of yourselves," Dominic said. "I knew this was gonna be hard job leading a team but you guys made it better for me. And I appreciate that." "And thank you for believing in us," Imani said. "Never did I think about becoming a superhero but here I am. And I have you to thank for that Dom." "Yeah seriously," Jeffrey said. "I know with being in the military, I thought it would be the only way to help save people but doing this I see it in another light and this puts me in a great place." "And I know with me, this is a lot for me to handle but having you guys by my side made this a lot easier for me," Darrell said. "And I wanna apologize for leaving you guys hanging earlier. I never should've lost my cool earlier like that." "Hey, it's okay." Jeffrey said. "Trust us, we understand." Imani said. Dominic walked up to Darrell and sat next to him. "Just know that we will always be here for you no matter what," Dominic said. "And the same thing goes for y'all too. We're a team now. And there's nobody else I would rather be on a team with." They smiled at each other and Jeffrey said, "Now that we're a team, what's our name and our codenames? I've already came up with a few ideas for mine." "Let's hear it." Darrell said. "Torch." "Too similar to the Human Torch." Dominic said nodding his head. "Pyroburn." "That sounds childish." Imani said with a laugh. "Okay, umm… SkyBlaze." "That… fits." Darrell said. "Then SkyBlaze it is for me," Jeffrey said. "Imani, what about you?" "Well, I'm just gonna keep it simple." Imani said. "And that is?" Darrell asked. "Diamond." "I can go with that." Dominic said. The three of them looked at Darrell and Jeffrey said, "Alright what's yours Darrell?" "Umm… how about… Kinetic," Darrell said. "Short for telekinetic." "I like that." Imani said. "Well what about the team name?" Jeffrey asked. He, Imani, and Darrell looked at Dominic and Dominic said, "Give me a minute." He started thinking and a several seconds later he said, "The Vanguard." "Oh that sounds awesome!" Imani said. "That is a good team name for us." Jeffrey said. Darrell gave Dominic a short applause for the team name. "Oh what about your codename Stealth?" Imani asked. They all started laughing out loud. Jeffrey went back to his pilot seat and started piloting their jet again. Darrell then had a somber look on his face. "Hey Jeff." he said. "What's up?" Jeffrey asked. "Can we make one stop right quick?" "Yeah no problem."

A few minutes later they arrived in Harlem. They got out the jet and looked around for a few seconds. "What are we doing here Darrell?" Imani asked. "I need to visit some people," Darrell said. "Follow me." He started walking off with everyone else following him. "I wonder where he's taking us." Jeffrey whispered to Dominic. Dominic shrugged his shoulders saying, "Who knows?" They walked through a couple of neighborhoods with people noticing who they are. The people were cheering for them as they were walking and Imani said, "I guess we're celebrities now huh?" How long do we have before we get there?" Jeffrey asked. "A couple more minutes I believe." Darrell asked. They arrived in a quiet neighborhood and Darrell had an uncertain look on his face. Darrell stopped in his track and said, "Guys, I can't do this." "What's wrong?" Jeffrey asked. "It's too much. Too hard." "Wait a minute Darrell," Dominic said. "Are we… in your parents' neighborhood?" Darrell stood there motionless with a blank look on his face. The three of them walked up to Darrell to try and comfort him. "Hey, it's okay man." Dominic said. "That's why you got us." Imani said. "We're here for you man." Jeffrey said. Darrell gave a slight nod and continued walking to his parents' house. They came up on a light blue house and Darrell said, "This is it." He looked back at his teammates and his teammates smiled back at him to make him at ease. Darrell gave a deep sigh and he walked up to the house. He gave the door two quick knocks. His nerves were getting the best of him as he was panting for his breath. Nothing happened for a few seconds. "Guys, I can't." he said quickly running back to the group. But before he could get back to them, the door opened and a middle aged black couple opened the door. The man was tall and he had dark brown skin with his hair balding at the top wearing glasses wearing a jacket and jeans. The woman had golden brown skin with short black hair wearing a blouse and a skirt. Darrell turned around slowly with tears coming down his face, scared of what his parents would think of him. "Mom? Dad?" he asked softly. His parents stood there in shock to see their son again. Thinking they would never see him again after all those years. "Darrell?" his mom asked with tears coming down her face. His parents started running toward him and Darrell was running towards them and they all gave each other one big massive hug with all of them sobbing. "I'm so sorry." Darrell said repeatedly. "It's okay baby." his mom said. "We're just happy your home." his dad said. They all comforted each other and his parents looked at Darrell's teammates and they too, had a few tears coming down their eyes. "Thank you." the parents mouthed. They nodded their heads and smiled at them. The family stopped hugging and wiped their tears away. "I wanna stay with you guys for a little bit," Darrell said. "Just to catch up. Is that okay?" "Of course you can." his mom said. "You can stay with us for as long you want." his dad said. Darrell walked back to his teammates and he said, "Thanks." "Anytime." Imani said. "I'm gonna stay with my folks for awhile if that's cool with you guys." "Totally." Dominic said. "Yeah, stay with them as long as you need to." Jeffrey said. They all gave each other a hug for a few seconds and Darrell ran back with his parents. His parents turned and looked at his teammates and his teammates waved back at his parents. "We really need to get out of here." Dominic said. "Why?" Jeffrey asked. "Cause I'm sensing we are causing traffic by parking our jet in the middle of the street." "Whoops." Imani said. They all went running back to the jet and flew home.


	23. Chapter 23

A week later, Dominic, Imani, and Jeffrey were chilling in their living room doing their own thing. Imani was reading a book by Albert Einstein and Dominic and Jeffrey were watching television. "You know you can turn the tv down a little bit." Imani said. Dominic and Jeffrey looked back at Imani and stuck their tongues out at her. Imani rolled her eyes and continued to read her book. Suddenly, Darrell came in through the front door with his suitcase and yelled, "Hey, I'm home!" His teammates came to the front door and gave him a hug. "I'm glad you back man!" Jeffrey said. "How was it?" Dominic asked. "Oh my God," Darrell said. "Much needed. We talked forever and forever. You know I thought they would hate me forever for what I did but it turns out they forgave me for what I did." "I mean they're your parents and like you said it was an accident." Imani said. "Yeah you're right," Darrell said. "I just wish my brother was here you know?" Darrell had a tear coming down his face. "Now don't you start crying on us again man." Dominic said. They all started laughing. Suddenly, an alarm started blaring throughout their home. "Everybody, I believe there's something happening on the coast of Mexico." CT said. They all ran to the Core Room and Darrell asked, "What's happening CT?" "It's appears that Crossbones has arrived in Mexico and is recruiting henchmen by breaking them out of a prison." CT responded. "Aw shit." Dominic said. "Who is this Crossbones guy anyway?" Jeffrey asked. "A longtime foe of the Avengers and Captain America." CT responded. "And what can Crossbones do?" Imani asked. "He has no superhuman abilities, but he is a mercenary and an expert marksman," CT responded. "He is quite dangerous." "So much for our rest." Dominic said. They all got into a circle and Dominic put his hand the middle. "Y'all ready?" he asked. "Diamond is." Imani said as she put her hand on top of Dominic's hand. "SkyBlaze is always ready." Jeffrey said as he put his hand on top of Imani's hand. "Kinetic is ready when you are." Darrell said as he put his hand on top of Jeffrey's hand. They all looked at each other and smiled. "Then let's go save the world again and show them who The Vanguard is." Dominic said. They threw their hands in the air and left to go suit up and save the world.

In another part of the world, a group of four mysterious people were inside an abandoned warehouse looking at video footage of The Vanguard and Christopher Chambers. They watched as Christopher was being defeated by the heroes and one man watching the video said, "This man couldn't even do his job right." "I told you this guy was gonna mess up." another man said watching the video. "Well what else were we supposed to do then?" the third man asked. "I don't know." the fourth man responded. The video ended and the group turned around and started looking at each other. "As they always say," the first man said. "If you want something done right, you have to do it your damn self." "I think it's time to show the world who we really are behind these close doors." the third man said. "Then it's time for the Alpha Clan to come out of the shadows and give the world a taste of who we really are." the first man said as he raised his hand. And as the man raised his hand, his hand started to light up in electricity.


End file.
